Police unions are some of the most powerful organizations. Not being able to fire bad actors is one of the worst parts of unions. I've never understood why there hasn't been a movement to reform them. Their coworkers get stuck with them too and bringing the whole unit down.
Instead we're always sold some nostalgic narrative of past golden eras of unions. Glossing over all the warts and cruft built up over time. We're long overdue for modernized unions.
The gains unions won for their members were worse than zero-sum, because they merely redistributed from profit (shareholder income) to worker income, while resulting in collective bargaining agreements that reduced the flexibility of the labor market.
The violence they were involved in was almost universally started by them, as illegal action that violated the employer's right to their property, and replacement worker's right to work at their site, was their main source of leverage.
www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/elijah-mcclain-was-injected-ketamine-while-handcuffed-some-medical-experts-n1232697