Why Reforms Haven’t Changed Police Culture

Policing in the U.S. has been a plague for as long as people can remember. They run amuck stating they're here to "serve and protect" but they do more harm than good. From racial profiling to murder, these "gangs" always find a way of never getting punished. When cops get caught committing a crime, the cop, and rightfully so, gets disciplined but it's only a slap on the wrist. We never hear about the department itself getting reprimanded for allowing this behavior. It brings into question: why won't these police departments who plead to keep people safe and push hard against criminals, do the same when it's their officers who are the bad guys? 

Reading this article informed me of things I never knew were possible. I never knew about how corrupt the Oakland Police Department was/is since they allow corrupt riders to attend social functions of the Oakland Police Officers Association. One thing that came to mind when I read this article was our discussion in class on Thursday. We were asked if the criminal justice system can be changed (something along those lines) and my group and I said no. It's very evident that we were right because although they tried to change the Oakland PD, there never seemed to be any progress in that police department. "In 2015, the department was readying itself to come out from federal court oversight. But what happened was, a scandal emerged that involved Oakland police officers sexually exploiting a young woman, and the department had covered a lot of that up". This happened 7 years ago. Who knows what other crimes they've tried to cover up?

A thing I found very hypocritical from police departments, in general, is that when they’re in the room with a potential suspect and they committed some sort of crime with a person/group, they try their best to encourage snitching. When it’s amongst themselves and their department, snitching is where they draw a line. This is evident in the article when it says," All of that points to the fact that what the Riders Scandal exposed was this culture of policing in which police officers are told very early on, You don’t inform on fellow police officers". Will there ever be any sort of change within police departments or the criminal justice system as a whole? I honestly don't believe so because if a federal court can appoint a police monitor on a whole police department and there hasn't been any sort of change, what hope is there that the LAPD or any sort other of police department can change even if they're being monitored?