I'm beginning to think cops as a subculture--and I do think they have to be thought of as a subculture for any of this behavior to make sense--simply have a vastly, vastly more in-group-out-group-focused mentality and, to be honest, moral code than we're used to seeing in the contemporary West. Anything done by an outsider to an insider is ten times worse than the other way around, regardless of the issue and even if the one is potential and the other actual. [/sage]
Law enforcement is a subculture in the same way that rock musicians are one.
