Government - are cops the only ones who behave badly?

They are not the only. They are not even the worst.

 

Literally nobody thinks this, that police are the “only” ones capable of corruption.

Cops get the coverage because they do visible and sometimes shocking crimes like shooting people and road piracy (speed traps, asset forfeitures, etc). In 3rd world countries cops are very low paid and make much of their money from shaking people down. Probably not too different here in that regard (although big city cops aren’t necessarily “low paid”). At the fed level we recently saw that FBI agent taking bribes from Russia, when his job was purportedly fighting Russian organized crime! So I guess everyone has a price, but I think generally the higher paid professionals are at least harder to buy off.

Most probably have some awareness of the concept of a revolving door of lobbyists at some govt agencies. Of course that isn’t necessarily a crime - per se - as much as giving industries an “in” or friendly relations or insight into how the agencies work. Are career rank and file people susceptible to corruption? Sure, but imo that’s harder to pull off on a high wage professional, particularly when they are putting out scientific work product and public reports (when they put something out that conflicts with the findings of scientists elsewhere, they would tend to get called out). I’m not saying it’s impossible for a corruptible workers at some rando agency, just that the opportunities are less for them to have enough individual influence. The entire concept of lobbyists or the recent crony capitalism is to undermine the “good” actors with the bad at these agencies. It’s called regulatory capture. Putting a corrupt guy at the top is the most obvious means to achieve this. Not sure bribing individuals would be particularly effective, but I’m sure it happens with some frequency.

In either case, we had that FBI agent caught taking bribes from organized crime. Is your conclusion then that we shouldn’t fight organized crime? Because it seems that’s the argument you are trying to tee up with CDC and EPA.

 

My first thought is that your's is not the fairest question.

You are equating the behavior of police officers, who have direct authority over life and death in public interactions, with other government officials like city managers or bureaucrats. Each have different types of oversight. "corruption" is a general term and is not equal in its impact, expression and difficulty in policing.

You are also propping up a strawman. Who is ignoring corruption in non-police government officials while advocating for more government involvement? Many folks call for increased government regulation in areas like healthcare or the environment while simultaneously advocating for accountability and reforms to prevent abuse of power. Right?

It is also a hasty generalization that because some government officials like cops may be corrupt, all government entities are prone to corruption without considering the vast differences in roles and checks.

But to (kinda) answer your question... yes, more government may increase the risk of corruption, but in some cases more government involvement is necessary. The important part is that whenever the government grows, safeguards are put in place to prevent misuse and ensure accountability.

 

I think it is also important to differentiate between corrupt cops and bad cops. Most people condemning the police on this forum are upset at bad or poorly trained people doing a difficult job, not being corrupt (eg bribery and coverups).

 

I am making that distinction. I do not believe someone that is merely bad at his job is corrupt. Corruption, to me, requires abusing the position for personal or financial gain.

 

Transparency is the answer to most of the problems with policing and other government malfeasance.

 

A good place to start would be with our governor

 

The people who call themselves first amendment auditors are doing it in a kinda dickish way but they are going to help with transparency. If you are making a salary paid by the taxpayers than you should be recorded while on the clock and the recordings should be public.

Cops are only the first people to be recorded. I suspect that in the future our fixation on privacy will be considered quaint.

 

Well that was easy… bad people exist in all industries.. the police have more power to cover up though. Blue wall is strong. The teacher wall isn’t.

 

Definitely true that cops aren't the only ones who behave badly. Cops get more attention because they kill people.

 

Depends on which scale you use. If you compare them to the general population, they are somewhat bad. If you compare them to Donald Trump, they are actually pretty good.

 

I would substitute the word "when" for "because" in this statement.

 

No. I just saw a guy on tv who wants to run the federal government trying to preemptively extort California for money in case they need government assistance for battling wildfires.

 

Cops aren’t the only ones. We can start at the VA. Particularly the Atlanta VA.

 

First off the cops we see misbehaving are a minority. Second they have a tough job dealing with the public day after day, when folks bow up against them or refuse to comply it has to bring back memories of the last couple of dozen jerks they have had to deal with. Third they have to watch their backs, you never know when that guy bowing up on you has a weapon.

 

There is a reason that when people refer to low expectations of a government worker, they say, "It's a government job."