It's NOT about black or white.. It's about BLUE! Some say that cops work HARD to rid their ranks of bad cops. I say, they COULD if they WANTED to, but there's a BLUE LINE that they won't cross.

You're not imagining it. Cops protect each other, as is the case in a lot of jobs; there is definitely a "brotherhood" (I've heard this from almost every cop I've come across online and one I know in real life). Often it's beneficial, but it can prevent bad cops from being weeded out, including people who never should've become cops in the first place. 

What can I tell you?  I am not part of the brigade of any town in America.  There are good old boys in the cop force.   Just like any band of any tribe.   They stick together.  It starts off as a good reason, you must protect each other, but it turns ugly, as it must when lines are crossed and you are considered lower than dirt if you report any odd behavior from any of your co-workers.

You cannot blame the men in blue.  They are damned if they do and probably fired or put in jobs they didn't plan on, or they keep their mouth's shut and turn a blind eye.

Right cops never go to jail. See all the cops Rudy Giuliani put in jail.

Hello not:

I don't operate on absolutes..  If you think I meant NO cop EVER goes to jail, then we're not operating on the same wavelength.    Since you're comfortable with absolutes, do I take it that you DENY there even IS a blue line??

excon

Blue sticks together like glue. Up until a few years ago (in Canada) police misconduct and public complaints about officers was investigated by the police department and it was only once in a blue moon that they were found guilty. Cheers!

@excon, cops are going to jail or getting fired all the time, yet you talk about this blue wall. Want to get rid of bad cops? Raise the standards, better training, cops walking the beat.

Hello again, not:

Got it..  So you DENY there IS a blue line..

excon

I think there is substantial evidence of The Blue Line, and I think to some extent it is a natural outgrowth of both human Kin Selection and the para-military structure of police forces.

But it doesn't necessarily have to be this way. The city of Richmond, CA (a poor mosty-minority city northwest of Berkeley, CA) dramatically reduced its problems with officer-involved shootings by taking the issue seriously, demanding accountability, and providing officers the training/resources which enabled them to call upon other methods than pulling out and firing their guns.

http://www.mercurynews.com/my-town/ci_26482765/use-deadly-force-by-police-disappears-richmond-streets

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/12/police-gun-shooting-training-ferguson/383681/

But getting there requires that communities demand such changes be implemented and have the political power to make them happen. Apparently more common are situations like Ferguson, MO, where the mostly-African American commuity was governed predominatly by the wealthier more-connected white population, policed by mostly white officers who didn't live there, and where the police's co-equal task along with enforcing the law was extracting tax revenue via fees and fines which disproportionately affected the city's poor/African-American population.

When a town has the police essentially running a "protection" racket, is it any wonder that the "muscle" isn't going to fink on their fellow racketeers?