The problem is that until cops like your father choose to stand up against the cops that ARE bad, there are no good cops, not really. Murdering Black people needs to stop. Period. Cops who kill people need to be fired and lose their pensions and be prosecuted for killing. IF this happened EVERY SINGLE TIME A COP MURDERED SOMEONE, cops would stop killing people. Full stop.

Call me crazy, but it seems to me that pointing fingers at individual good cops and blaming them for systemic injustices uses logic that is pretty similar to racist thinking. The OP’s point was “not all cops are bad,” and the above comment responds to that with “yes they are because some of them are murderers.” There is a major flaw in the logic here, and one that needs to be looked at very seriously because it’s a pretty sad state of affairs when you can’t sort out who is with you and who is against you. In most situations misdirected anger does significantly more harm than good. I’m not saying that the anger is not justified, just why not look instead at the hiring practices that give favor to testosterone-driven racist hicks who want to treat real life like a video game. Change the people that do the hiring and you can shift the entire culture of a workplace over the course of years instead of decades. I’ve seen it happen where I work. And when the union blocks our attempts at these interventions, maybe THAT is what we need to be screaming about, rather than ostracizing potential supporters of reform.

@2 The entire movement to reform policing, to end the endless murder of Black people by cops, is ALL about reform.

It's not that complicated. We're not talking about people as individuals. We're talking about policing as a whole, as an ideology, as terrorism in practice. In no instance in the history of cops murdering Black people have other cops come out and said "this cop murdered this person, this cop should be fired and prosecuted for murdering this person." Not once. This is not a matter of opinion, it's a matter of fact. Cops who kill are given the special favor of "qualified immunity." They do not deserve it. It makes no sense that such a thing exists.

Your argument relies on presentation of logical ways to create change as if they have never been considered. They have and they have been systematically dismissed, because those in power are not interested in changing how policing is done in this country. It is being done EXACTLY as it is supposed to be. It is white supremacist terrorism in a uniform, government sanctioned and taxpayer funded.

The NYPD sued (and won) to ensure they could NOT hire people who wanted to be cops who they thought were too intelligent or too ethical to tow the line. And long before that the entire existence of cops came into being as slave patrols and then to patrol freed slaves in order to "protect" white people (actually white people's PROPERTY) from them. Cops do not solve crimes. Nationally the solve rate for serious crimes is 2%. What kind of job allows a 2% return? A job where the main objective has nothing to do with what they claim.

There does not need to be a change in who does the hiring and who they hire. There needs to be a change in policing entirely as in it needs to be defunded, demiltarized, and if we really want a change in our society, made non-existent as we know it. This country has GUTTED funding for EVERYTHING for communities from childcare, child protection and foster care, early childhood education (all education actually), community support for new parents, people living in poverty, especially the working poor, affordable housing, employment opportunities that provide the ability to make a living (not just survive or suffer), health care, etc. etc. etc. while all the while ever increasing the military budget and using a huge fraction of that to offload military equipment to police forces nationwide in addition to the TRILLION dollar national budget for policing in this country. Cops who kill are rarely punished and if they are fired they get to go somewhere else and be a cop. IF they are tried and convicted (extremely rare) their punishment plays out in mostly short sentences (15 years or less), while we have for profit prisons filled with black and brown bodies serving life sentences for theft and drug offenses.

All the while the wealthy rob the entire country blind and never are held accountable for their crimes (they're bailed out by the government) and white people in states that have legalized marijuana are making bank (as are the states on the tax $$$).

Pretending modern day policing is not white supremacist terrorism in action denies reality and ignores history. And yes there are non-white cops. There are also non-white members of the military. There are also non-white members of the government on all levels. This country is still one of white supremacist ideology that uses that ideology as terrorism against the people who live in it through policy and action.

White people are terrified of a world without police and yet eradicating policing and taking that TRILLION dollars and giving it to communities in need would the single largest action that would begin to create equality in this country.

The problem with not talking about people as individuals is that they are. If you want to get other people on board with what you are angry about, this is a reality that you need to deal with. Otherwise you are just going to shout yourself hoarse and turn people away from the very causes you seek to support. I for one don’t want that. I want change.

Again, no INDIVIDUALS, not one single cop has EVER come out and said "I am against the murder of Black people by my fellow cops. I demand that when my colleagues murder Black people that they are held accountable and prosecuted." NOT ONE. You want to talk about individuals, yet cops do not ever act individually. They act as one and never cross the blue line.

As a response to the entire country (and world, actually) protesting in the streets against police violence and the murder of Black people after George Floyd's murder - what did cops do? THEY DOUBLED DOWN IN EVERY CITY IN EVERY WAY BY BEING MORE VIOLENT, MORE VICIOUS, AND DENYING THAT THEIR BEHAVIOR, INDIVIDUAL OR OTHERWISE, REQUIRES SYSTEMIC DEMOLITION. Look what they did to people here in Portland, FFS!

You can say the same thing over and over and over and I will say again it denies reality. If you want people to address cops as individuals then individual cops need to be standing up, speaking up, and taking action individually against the brutality exhibited again and again and again by their colleagues. IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN. The police exist as an organization that is monolithic and single minded. There are NO individuals involved.

One cop pushed an old man (protester) in Buffalo, NY and caused a traumatic brain injury.
When another cop went to lean down to see if the man was alright he was immediately reprimanded, stood up and kept walking. The entire lot of those assholes quit when the cop who assaulted the old man got fired.

We are never going to agree on this matter and we are not going to change each other's minds.

The Blue Wall of Silence

https://www.themarshallproject.org/records/605-blue-wall-of-silence

Perception is reality.

It is a valid perception that when the police break our laws, the police are not punished as other citizens would be.

It is a valid perception that white supremists are in control of the GOP. That the GOP is using that control to stack the legal system with racists.

Perceptions don't have to be true, that is why government ethics require purchasers to recuse themselves from contracting when the appearance of impropriety can exists.

The system must be reformed before those perceptions can be addressed.

All cops are complicit.