Let us consider many people’s unease toward law enforcement and the familiar reassurance that most officers are good, even noble. This claim is sometimes distilled into a statistic—a bold one. Perhaps someone might declare that ninety-five percent of police officers are upright, trustworthy, and fair. Let us grant them that number. It is a generous estimate, perhaps too generous. But even if it is true, what does it mean? What comfort should it bring?
Imagine a football coach announcing, with no small pride, that he refrains from molesting ninety-five percent of the boys in his charge. Imagine a server declaring that she does not lace ninety-five percent of her patrons’ meals with human filth. Picture, if you can, a man asserting that he only beats his wife five out of every hundred days or a youth counselor calmly stating that he violates only five percent of the girls who come to him for guidance.
Tell me, would you entrust your son to such a coach? Would you sit down to eat in such a restaurant? Could you sleep, even one night, knowing that your daughter is in the presence of such a counselor? Could you ever look upon that man’s wife and feel anything but horror for what she must endure? The frequency of the wrongdoing is not the sole question, nor is it even the most important one. The nature of the wrongdoing, the power of the wrongdoer, and the consequences of their actions—these, too, must be reckoned with.
To say that a great many police officers are good does not erase the fear or diminish its legitimacy, for the mere presence of even a tiny percentage who abuse their authority casts a long shadow, one that darkens the lives of the vulnerable and the powerless. It is not enough to speak of the good if the harm persists. And counting percentages is not enough when lives hang in the balance.
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