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MrScorpio

(73,626 posts)
Wed Aug 5, 2020, 04:15 AM Aug 2020

Here's a good article which explains differentiations on accountability between the Military & Cops

Why the US Military Usually Punishes Misconduct but Police Often Close Ranks

No ‘blue wall of silence:’ A military lawyer explains why the US armed forces take accountability and justice seriously.
The Conversation


Dwight Stirling

Many U.S. military members publicly disavowed President Trump’s decision to pardon Edward Gallagher, the former SEAL commando convicted of killing a teenage detainee in Iraq in 2017.

Gallagher’s alleged war crimes were nearly universally condemned up the chain of command, from enlisted men to Navy Secretary Richard Spencer. Indeed, it was Gallagher’s SEAL colleagues who reported the former commando’s actions.

This insistence on holding fellow service members accountable for bad behavior sharply differentiates the military from the police.

When police are revealed to have killed an unarmed suspect or used excessive force during arrest, police generally defend those actions. Cops who report wrongdoing are routinely ostracized as “rats” and denied promotions, according to a 1998 Human Rights Watch study. Researchers identify this so-called “blue wall of silence” – the refusal to “snitch” on other officers – as a defining feature of U.S. cop culture today.

Yet both soldiers and police officers put their lives on the line for their team every day. So what explains these two armed forces’ divergent attitudes toward bad behavior?

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/why-the-us-military-usually-punishes-misconduct-but-police-often-close-ranks?utm_source=pocket-newtab
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