Oh, the irony. On June 23, Lew Lachance urges us not to throw out the barrel because of a few bad apples. His point seems to be that only a small percent of cops are bad, we all have our biases, and the police overall do good.
But the original phrase is “one bad apple spoils the barrel.” That original idiom is an appropriate metaphor for the police.
Would you feel safe flying if a few pilots crashed their planes since the vast majority were competent? Would you feel safe eating at a restaurant with a history of deaths from tainted food because only one of their chefs was careless?
The police, airlines, restaurants all provide us with valuable services. But for these institutions our safety standards are necessarily high and any death demands a review of the institutional processes that caused loss of life.
When people are repeatedly killed — Rayshard Brooks, David McAtee, Tony McDade, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many others — then it is right to recognize that the barrel is rotten, not just a few bad apples.
This is a moment when communities across the country can commit to reform. This is the opportunity in many places to defund the police — that is, restructure police and redirect budgets to other organizations that are better equipped to deal with social problems without violence.
David Kulp
Ashfield