Reply #9: The reason that people who get so up in arms

[Che_Nuevara]

about police who are criminals is, as far as I can tell, the same reason people get so upset when a cop gets murdered. It is the "thin blue line" idea: that the only barrier between our society and a brutal anarchy is the police forces. (Whether this is true or not is subject to debate, but it is a legitimate opinion.)

So when an officer commits so extreme a crime as murder, the instinctual reaction is one of extreme fear. If police are victimizing citizens, then who will protect the citizens from being victimized? Or at least, so goes the thinking (upon which I pass no judgement).