To bring it disturbingly close to home, I think it is like eating meat. We all sort of know those mammals don’t enjoy getting killed, and aren’t too happy living on factory farms. But they aren’t human beings and someone else deals with the bleeding so it doesn’t really feel like a big deal. Same with some cops; they don’t see the people they abuse as human, the abuse takes place mostly in secret, and someone deals with the aftermath. Even if the abuse somehow sees the light of day, the municipality pays the judgements.
My point is that I think it dehumanizes us when we dehumanize cops.
