Dragoness Eclectic's Journal

The problem is not ACAB, because ACAB is demonstrably false. The problem is toxic workplace culture.

Toxic workplace culture in a retail business that sells thinggummies at worst results in all the highly-employable workers getting jobs elsewhere, the narcissist, racist, misogynist and/or generally abusive management running the company into the ground, and the less-employable workers living stress-filled lives in retail hell, and helping run the company into the ground because they don’t give a damn about the managers or the company owners any more. It does not generally result in dead bodies, however.

Toxic workplace culture in an organization that specializes in using lethal force to enforce “business practices” it prefers, whose employees have no accountability to anyone and generally can’t even be fired, and doesn’t need to keep customers happy to stay in business? The non-toxic “employees” will rapidly leave, and this toxic workplace will actually attract MORE toxic employees. And innocent people will die.

If a specific police department has a toxic culture, then yes, All Cops (in that P.D.) Are Bastards. If a specific police department has a healthy workplace culture, then ACAB does not hold.

The only way to clean up a completely toxic workplace culture is to destroy it. Fire everyone, tear apart and restructure the organization, and rehire only those people who may be salvageable. (This sometimes happens in corporate mergers, when the buyer’s corporate culture is not compatible with the bought-out company’s culture).

NYPD appears to be really toxic, as does the Seattle PD, Atlanta PD, and, of course, Ferguson’s PD.

A non-toxic, mostly healthy workplace culture can be made healthier through things like re-training and better policies. We do need some law enforcement, because some non-cops are bastards. We don’t need toxic police departments that are worse than the criminals; and healthy police departments do not need to and should not be burdened with responsibilities outside their main job just because the city or state doesn’t want to pay for mental health services, education, tax collection, emergency responders, etc, etc, etc.

Essay originally posted as a response to someone's Tumblr post, but I think this stands on its own and needs to be said.