No Good Cops

There is no such thing as a good cop.

The death of George Floyd in Minnesota highlights a point long debated in this country: why are there so many bad cops?

The simple answer is there is no such thing as a good cop so long as bad laws are being enforced. This goes beyond racism and cuts to the core of a corrupt and power hungry establishment that passes the buck and faces no repercussions.

So long as immoral laws are being enforced, it sullies every single cop in this country. Cops can be necessary, but necessary and good are not the same thing.

I am not convinced by the argument that just “following orders” immunized one from moral liability. The Nazi private that pushed the start button on the concentration camp gas chambers is just as guilty of war crimes and genocide as the leaders who implemented the plan, the commander who signed off on it, and the officer who authorized it.

The last three American presidents who have authorized drone strikes that 90% of the time kill civilians are murders as much as the recruiter who told the 18 year old joining the army would be like playing Call of Duty, and that same kid who piloted the drone 10,000 miles away and pushed the button to fire the missiles.

Just because someone else, someone in authority, told you to kill someone does not mean you aren’t a murderer.

Across the country, policy like the war on drugs causes thousands to be incarcerated for long periods of time because of nonviolent drug offenses. Police regularly abuse their power in traffic stops that turn into unreasonable searches for no other reason than they can get away with it. All it takes is an officer to conduct a “free air search” with a K9 or by himself if he claims to smell something suspicious and he suddenly has the probable cause he needs to search a vehicle. Such tactics are impossible to hold a wrongdoer responsible because of the subjective nature of the search.

Whether or not you view current drug laws as immoral is irrelevant. It would not be difficult for even the strictest authoritarian to find a law he believes oversteps reasonable bounds of morality.

So long as laws are not good, those enforcing them cannot be good.

Truly good and perfect laws are a human impossibility. We can strive to do better, to improve our legal system, but we will never reach a true morality.

There will never be such a thing as a “good cop.”