There may be a growing awareness that police unions are not like other unions. Historically, American cops were used to violently break up strikes, so their fr

There may be a growing awareness that police unions are not like other unions. Historically, American cops were used to violently break up strikes, so their fraternal orders have never been seen by other unions as trusted members of the same cause. Quite the contrary. And while the resulting animosity may have diminished in recent decades, police unions are still viewed by other unions as a thing apart. Given the increasingly visible role of police unions in backstopping egregious behavior, current events are extending this view to a broader segment of the public. Indeed, what's becoming clear is that while the standard concerns of unions are shared by police unions (working conditions, pay, etc.), they also serve a more fundamental purpose that's unique to law enforcement; shielding their members from legal accountability for acts of violence committed against the public. Unfortunately, this is not an entirely unreasonable thing for them to demand. In essence, they're expected to do a lot of the dirty work demanded by those in power. And by "dirty" I mean fundamentally disrespectful of people's basic rights. To the extent that an establishment is supported by the general public, special protections for the heavies are unnecessary. But the moment sentiment turns against them, the cops know full well that they'll be hung out to dry - even if their abuses were an unavoidable result of following specific orders (e.g., meeting quotas for arrests, prosecuting the drug war, growing department budgets via dubious asset forfeitures, etc.) This use 'em and abuse 'em approach to outsourcing violence is not a new phenomena. In fact, the situation that police unions exist to protect their members against was detailed by Niccolo Machiavelli in 16th century, when he provided an account of Cesare Borgia, who was unburdened by heavy scruples, and Remirro de Orco, a brutal but useful man for whom things ended very badly. http://faculty.cua.edu/pennington/churchhistory220/Lecture13/PrinceCesareBorgia.html http://faculty.cua.edu/pennington/churchhistory220/Lecture13...