"Not all cops, but so many and in such incredible proportions that it may as well be, especially considering the choice to be a bastard is one that must be made every moment of every working day"
There are cops out there who want to do good in bad departments. They are either pushed out of the force, or pushed under the extant culture of callousness and brutality.
There are cops out there who want to do good in good departments. They're rare, and the way that policing is (not) regulated in this fucking country makes all good departments inherently unstable, as power tends to corrupt, and unchecked power doubly so - but they do exist.
But the vast, vast majority of cops out there are complicit with their departments - and the vast, vast majority of departments in this country are rotten. And until we, as a society, reckon with that - ACAB remains a valid criticism.