#1 seems like a fairly optimistic interpretation of how the system works in practice. Re #2, "sometimes decent people do stupid things": these "decent people"

#1 seems like a fairly optimistic interpretation of how the system works in practice. Re #2, "sometimes decent people do stupid things": these "decent people" have been doing these "stupid things" habitually, systematically, across the nation, for decades. This isn't some one-off incident, this is the typical procedure.