And that brings me to the first reason cops need to speak up. I know all cops aren't incompetent, trigger happy assholes who abuse their power. This problem would be far worse if all cops were like those in the videos sourced above (and the solution far simpler), but those who aren't, aren't speaking up against those who are. Until the good cops speak up, they're in the same boat as the bad ones, because all people see are cops who are staying silent about an obvious problem. The excuses given for the incidents are old and stale when they're not blatantly ludicrous (like saying you meant to shoot an autistic guy instead of his caregiver). They're rehashed endlessly and fewer citizens believe them each time they come around. The time for bullshit excuses is past. The good cops have to speak up against the needless killings and violence if things are going to wind down. I don't really understand why they don't. If some incompetent shithead at work is screwing up and creating fallout that gets coworkers killed, then those coworkers are knowingly putting themselves at risk if they don't speak up. Especially, if it's crystal clear that the downward trend will continue should nothing change.

Which leads to the other reason good cops need to speak up. This vicious cycle of violence will continue if nothing is changed. Cops will keep doing what they're doing and people will keep getting more pissed. It's already reached the point that nuts are shooting cops, as if more violence will solve this. Violence is a failure's option except in cases of pure self defense. Anyone who has to resort to violence to prove their point does so because they failed at solving the problem some other way. It doesn't matter if it's someone robbing a house for food, a cop who doesn't know why he shot an unarmed healthcare worker, or a country bombing another country on the other side of the world. The cycle always repeats if not stopped, and it gets worse each time it comes around. This cycle, if not stopped, is going to lead to serious consequences. Everyone will lose. Right now, bad cops are seen as unruly public servants. What will happen once enough citizens are killed for them to be seen as rogue agents? Just as a reminder.

From www.thefreedictionary.com:

Rogue-An unprincipled, deceitful, and unreliable person; a scoundrel or rascal.

Agent-One that acts or has the power or authority to act.

It could be argued that the bad cops are already at this point. It could be further argued that the good cops are making themselves guilty by association by protecting such individuals from the same laws they're supposed to uphold. I won't explore the hypocritical connotations of good cops protecting bad cops. However, I'll say that if cops want everyone else to respect the law, they must do so themselves. It's their job to enforce the law, which means it's also their job to be good examples of it. No one wants people to think that this can't be solved within the confines of the law, but that will happen if the current situation isn't changed.

There are other people who need to speak out also: Politicians who are afraid to be criticized by the cops, the Federal government that will be in the middle should this situation hit a critical mass, and friends and family of cops who claim to care about them. However, as the people who make excuses for needless violence perpetrated by their coworkers, the police have the greatest power to bring this cycle of violence to a halt. The bad part is that it'll take years to fix this, because it took years to get into this situation. Neither gun control, nor arrests, nor more shootings will solve this. The only things that will do so are the guts to speak up against the violence, the will to solve it with something other than violence, and a lot of patience. The only other option is failure and chaos.