In order to explain why the city of Charleston needs an external audit of its police department, I first need to ask a question. Why is it so hard, for many of us, to say that any police officers ever did anything wrong? We’re willing to criticize presidents and doctors and teachers if we believe they’ve made mistakes. But when a police officer, for example, kills an unarmed citizen, it’s hard to get a conviction. The first trial for the man who killed Walter Scott ended in a hung jury, because they couldn’t agree on whether the police officer was just doing his job or committing a crime.
Source: Transparency, Whiteness, and the Unspeakable – The Glebe Street Hacks