Once an organisation becomes corrupt enough, it becomes exceptionally hard to root out the corruption - even if you're politically powerful, like a state govern

Once an organisation becomes corrupt enough, it becomes exceptionally hard to root out the corruption - even if you're politically powerful, like a state governor. All the cops who didn't like corruption have been chased out - a process this article shows in action. All the people who think the culture is unconscionable have quit. Every new hire is trained by people who will tell them "it's normal, everyone does it". And all the leadership, even if they don't engage in corruption themselves, have ignored it or covered it up. If you're the governor and you decide to crack down on corrupt cops? The cops can simply stop dealing with certain highly visible crimes, claiming they're too busy or whatever. And sure, you can fire some of them - but all the replacements are also implicated in corruption. Meanwhile, voters don't care about the political minutiae and blame-shifting, all they know is under governor Chris_wot they don't feel safe walking the streets, they want someone tough on crime. You lose the election to your opponent, who gives the cops MRAPs, AR-15s and a license to kill; and suddenly the cops have time to deal with those highly visible crimes. The trick to avoiding this is that you've got to root out corruption early - before the honest people have been driven out.