I feel so sad for the good cops out there, they get lumped into the same group as the few bad ones and then demonised by the media and social movements. Then is anybody surprised there is an increase in hate crimes and violence against them? I just want to write to every one saying we love you, we appreciate you, don't feel hated. Now replace the word cops with literally any other group of people, doesn't that just say so much about the human race -- "I don't like that you exist"
Know what one of my least favorite questions is? How much would it take for you to take another person's life? People are always shocked when I say no amount of money would because 1. it's a terrible, leading question and 2. because of what you're talking about above.
The problem is we've created a siege mentality in Police culture, and that siege mentality causes a reciprocal siege mentality amongst the police. It does not encourage quality applicants to police forces and the antagonistic nature of the job drives the siege mentality ever farther until we end up in this vicious cycle where cops profile black men to death and black men avoid and/or antagonize cops on every possible level. 'member when the TSA first got started? It was full of every veteran grandfather with a desire to help his country. Then it got shittier and shittier and shittier until the employees at the TSA now are the thugs that lack the competence to do a real job but glory in the opportunity to inflict their will on people who can afford to travel. I know a cop who legitimately protected her town from a crazed coworker who was involuntarily committed because he threatened to mow down the elementary school. She was fired, sued under whistleblower protection and won over a million dollars. And her facebook feed is full of cold dead fingers rhetoric because she honestly believes that people should have the right to shoot anyone who threatens them in the face at any time. None of this is going to get better until we can get out of the bunker.
I though lack of quality applicants was a feature not a bug. Police departments are active discouraging smart conscious people from joining so that they can continue to be a band of thugs. The article you linked says the opposite but here is this from 2000 barring high IQ applicants from police is a thing in some areas. http://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/story?id=95836 The other big problem is Weed is so ubiquitous that most people have tried it at least once and that would disqualify you in many departments. So you end up self selecting for people that either are super sheltered or just lie well.Candidates must pass demanding physical and psychological tests, and they must have a drug-free history and pass a rigorous background check. Many departments administer polygraph tests.