What I rarely hear discussed is the psychology of becoming a bad cop, where violence and danger is always present and part of the job. What happens to the brains of these public servants? Consider the folks at the MVA- have they ever been after our hearts and cheerfulness?
Over time, my hunch is many of these cops not only become callous, but seek out violent escalation so to achieve a cognitive baseline, to feel normal and alert. It may be that lots of them are chasing withdrawal symptoms like someone addicted to methamphetamines. If too many days go by where things haven't popped-off, mental fog, sluggishness, lack-of-awareness can creep in, which will get them killed.
In addition to the environmental, there's economic pressures, where rewards and revenue for booking and arresting is strongly incentivised. Hasn't the beat cop or traffic cop always been about maximising quota with least amount of effort (human nature), and appearing productive to peers and superiors? It may be the case that singling-out marginalized people in mixed-class environments comes from adaptation to market pressures. And yet over time, racial prejudices would arise in parallel, if such types of thinking were of fraternal merit/profit.
Where systems of policing have historically been (from their perspective) about precincts finding ways to improve their underfunded circumstances, more defunding will create the needed reform/results?
