I am SICK of this “few bad apples” bullshit

[sparkindarkness]

Because it is bullshit. We see it over and over and over again, the same excuse trotted out. Military torturing people? A few bad apples. Police shooting people? A few bad apples? Police violently attacked someone who was NEARBY but not even INVOLVED in a protest and lead to his death? A few bad apples.

Bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit!

Take the tragic and disgraceful attack on Ian Tomlinson. There are at least half a dozen police officers watching while this man is thrown to the ground and a further 6 watching when he was hit with a baton.

They watched. They watched him being attacked. They watched him fall. They didn’t help him. They didn’t report him.

100% of the police present watched this happen and did NOTHING. 100%. ALL of them. And when the first reports came out the police force angrily insisted none of it ever happened - only video footage caught by reporters proved the police - ALL THE POLICE THERE AND THEIR BOSSES - to be vicious, lying scumbags with no respect for the people they’re supposed to protect.

It is NOT a few bad apples. It is NEVER a few bad apples. Whether it’s military torturers are gun happy police or violent psycho police. They can only happen because the WHOLE FREAKING BARREL is willing to consent, to be silent, to support and to lie.

It can only happen because the whole damn barrel is rotten through and through.

Comments

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

I've thought the same thing myself.

It's one thing when one individual does something awful. If they're then punished, thrown out, etc. and it doesn't happen again, then yes, that's just a bad apple.

But when somebody does this, and they're just... let to get away with it until the media or some other outside pressure forces consequences on them, then it doesn't matter if it's just the one person doing it, everybody else shares the blame too.

[jennaria.livejournal.com]

As I remember the original proverb, it says that one bad apple spoils the entire basket. Not a dismissal but an indictment. (Not that I think the people using the term realize that, but still.)

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

Which reasoning is sound if you've only got them in one barrel. I think you need to more-clearly define the size of the barrel.

I disagree with you past a certain point. This is a sensitive subject, and I'm concerned that if I argue with you on it things will get very heated.

[moondancerdrake.livejournal.com]

I think the term "w few bad apples" minimalizes the fact that people around the offenders are doing nothing about thier behavior. If you so nothing when someone you know crosses that line, then you are just as guilty IMO.

[suryaofvulcan.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's remotely possible the other officers who were there couldn't believe what they were seeing, and were watching in a shocked, horrified, immobile fasshion. The denial afterwards however is unforgivable - and rotten to the core.

[ephemera.livejournal.com]

the officers I know personally would largely fall under the category of 'good apples, fighting to do the right thing through a soup of rotteness' - there are some huge systematic problems...

[logophilos.livejournal.com]

The problem for the police is that successive governments from Thatcher onward have criminalised dissent from the government view, to the point where anyone who vehemently and visiblty disagrees with it, is now a terrorist. Before, they were bloody nuisances. Now people who protest aren't pains in the arse, they're threats to national security. The police aren't immune from 30 years or more of relentless propaganda, unfortunately.

I refuse to believe all cops are rotten. But the system and the way the police are policed, stinks to high heaven.

[mrmeval.livejournal.com]

In any organization there are two types of people, those that work for the people and those that work for the organization. Those that work for the organization will run it.
Jerry Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy

Without removing the higher echelons regularly you end up with people entrenched in the system and only working for the system.

You won't ever fix it. Even revolution is only a temporary measure.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

It so enrages me. A bad apple is easily expelled - it can only go on EXISTING because the whole damn barrel is willing to keep them around and protect them. Which makes the barrel rotten to the core.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Aye? Now that is much much better and more telling. yes - one bad apple makes everyone look bad, so it needs removing

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Well with any population you can take a subset and look for a percentage that accept and a percentage that doesn't. Here were have a subset of the Metropolitan and City of London police (and as further abuses come to light, this subset is growing larger and larger) and as we look at it as a microcosm we can see what percentage accept this and what percentage work to stop it. So far it's 100% accept. ANd that's sad.


I have sadly seen the police at there worst for a very long time - after this? Well I'm nto sure I cna trust them any more

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Aye - a few bad apples doing it - and a few more bad apples not stopping it - and a few more bad apples not reporting it and a few more bad apples lying about it and covering it up. How many apples have to be bad before the barrel is rotten?

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

I know, i've tried to fit it into my head as something that makes sense - they were paralysed with shock, they didn't see the whole thing etc... but it doesn't work. Only their consent can work

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I'm increasingly presented with the grim reality that bad apples may be the NORM and such good apples so very very rare while stuck in a barrel of rot

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Dissent is now a crime - and we've coupled that with dehumanising criminals and undue hero-support of the police.

I'm unwilling to believe all cops are rotten. I'm sadly beginning to think the majority are - to a degree at least. When EVERY SINGLE POLICE OFFICER who saw and was near abuses and attacks during the protests turned away, ignored iot and didn't stop it... well, 100%? It's horrific

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Run it and, sadly it seems, make up a large number of people within it.


Sadly the problem here is that they AREN'T working for the system. In this age of mobile camera phones it is IMPOSSIBLE to pull shit like this and it not be noticed and recorded. If they wanted to help the system then what they should have done is instantly jumped on and publicly flayed anyone pulling crap like this - because that's far less damaging than implying complicity