Oh I agree with you on that. There are too many places that are broken. We do make a difference, but the media doesn't help us at all. These broken systems are nationwide, etc. There isn't any way to say that what happens in New York, Texas, etc., have any bearing whatsoever on how we police here in South Carolina.
I try to stay out of the acab talk because, again, I understand the issues and frustrations. I will put a little info in when something specific is asked, like I did in this thread. However, I won't belittle, or try and pretend like the reasons for acab comments aren't real and substantial.
I'm sure it's a sensitive matter for you. The thing is, this country has about 4% of the world population and 22% of the incarcerated. More than a thousand people die at the hands of civil servants every year, the ultimate and most final, cruel, and unusual of punishments, never having the chance to be tried for their crimes (if they even committed one) or to face due process.
Ultimately the role of the police is to subdue, investigate, and deliver criminal conduct to the judicial system for processing. Whenever they kill someone, they have failed in that mission, harmed families, and destroyed lives, in every sense of the word.
A few years back, someone in iceland holed themselves up in the second floor of a barricades house and started firing outside. Special forces had to raid the building, taking heavy fire in the hallways as they advanced from the perpetrator. They eventually shot and killed the man after sustaining losses of their own.
Despite all this, the event was received as a national tragedy - the public, politicians, the police force, all became quite somber over the next several weeks, as they reflected on the reality that civil servants, people who serve all members of the public, had just, for the first time, terminated the very existence of a civilian.
That is the mentality that is sorely lacking from almost all law enforcement agencies in the US, even the ones that try to conduct themselves with integrity, like your own. I think it's there for firefighters, so it can be done here.
This doesn't even touch upon things like stacking charges (IE resisting arrest because you involuntarily struggle to breathe in a choke hold), planting evidence, etc.