There are some good cops and there's also some bad cops, and the news will mostly follow what they find bad cops doing because it brings them more attention, views, and revenue. I have been a victim of a stop and frisk when I worked at Chipotle in Manhattan when I was 20 years old. I am a Caucasian male with Hispanic heritage in me since my mom is Sicilian and Greek and my father being Puerto Rican. I would call the case more so profiling if anything because I was hanging out with a friend who we had a brother/sister relationship established at the time and we were walking down a part of the Bronx where I grew up around, so it was no different from walking around Harlem at the time. I had my Chipotle crew shirt and hat on at the time and a police wagon pulled up to the side of the road, hopped out of the van, told me to get up against the wall, and immediately right after 10 other police officers showed up. They did not say anything when I asked why they had stopped us, and they became to frisk and pat me down while people I knew across the street were looking over in confusion.
I did not consent to the pat down, but at the time, stop and frisk was still legal, but they could not search my friend without a female officer present. When they finally stopped patting me down, they said I looked like someone they were looking for to which I responded with asking again to why they had stopped me. They said some person that matched my description was running around sticking up old ladies with a screwdriver and I looked exactly like the person that was described to them. Why I called bullshit at the time was simply because Chipotle took away their 50% off meals perk to which I took it as a ploy to get back at the company. I only came to that conclusion because a few of my coworkers got the same treatment the SAME DAY I got patted down...
It's tough to say, but I have seen more good cops than bad since that day, and my brother was a corrections officer previously, and he had told me about the trauma he experienced with dealing with the worst of the worst at Rikers island. It honestly like gambling with public servants because there were moments in my life where police officers were in my area at the right time and situation, especially when I needed them most. I have also seen police officers abuse their authority and choke a few people out who did petty things like accidentally knocking over a kid and being too doped out to notice or a crackhead stealing clothes from the GAP or similar. All in all, not all jobs are created equally, and police officers do risk their lives on the daily to make sure they uphold the law and try their best to protect us civilians from harm or further. I really wish the news didn't primarily focus on the bad because there are situations where you do see police offices do good and civilians will most often do the same out of respect.
Some positive outcome situations the news actually covers:
