Some people (not me, you understand), might say that the Stasi would seem to be alive and well in both countries, and that, evidently, you can't keep a "good idea" down for long.
-IainB
Ah! IainB old friend...you're much more polite than me. I might have said
Stasi, but all I could think of at the time was
Schutzstaffel,
Sturmabteilung,
Sicherheitsdienst, and a few other choice names I learned back in 4th year German class. So I thought I'd best tone it down a bit out of deference to the other DoCo members.
Two of the most utterly despicable people I ever had the misfortune of getting to know are carrying badges as we speak. And truth be told, there are also many noble people serving in various police agencies who are wholly motivated by the finest intentions and levels of personal integrity. I know several of those too.
But
you really can't be a good person when you're working for a bad organization. As the treatment of whistle blowers, and the "blue line" mindset reinforces over and over the importance of "maintaining solidarity no matter what" with police who might attempt to do their part to curb incompetence, irresponsibility, dereliction of duty, abuses of power, and criminal activity on the part of their fellow officers.
Seriously? I mean really...seriously guys?Like the police captain Harry Bryant tells Rick Deckard in the film
Blade Runner: You know the score,pal. If you're not a cop,
you're little people!
"Hiya Deckard!"Too bad so many in our government and on our police forces are coming around to think the same way.