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Comment by adamnemecek | Hacker News Reader

> save for the very worst cops (which are in the minority)

This is debatable at best.

One bad apple (spoils the bunch). It is amazing how often the first part, but not the last, is applied to police officers.

Indeed. Good cops who protect bad cops are not good cops, and bad cops are generally well protected.

Criminals and accessories.

Try talking to some. You'll be surprised that most are actually pretty good people trying to make a difference in a very difficult job. They see nothing but the worst of humanity day in and day out.

I did. I definitely wouldn't use the word "good". More like improperly trained, unprofessional, aggressive, ignorant and trigger happy.

There are no good people, only good systems. The German people didn't turn into monsters in 1938 and become decent people at the end of 1945, they were just participants in a broken system. The Rwandans didn't suddenly become the worst people in the world for a few months in 1994. Perfectly decent people are capable of utterly abhorrent things if their environment is sufficiently toxic.

US police officers aren't bad people, they're just poorly trained and held to very low standards of accountability. They do bad things because they're operating in a system that incentivises them to do bad things.

> "There are no good people, only good systems."

Nice quote. Can you recommend some reading on this topic?

The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo is a satisfactory primer.

https://www.amazon.com/Lucifer-Effect-Understanding-Good-Peo...

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