According to one old sociological chestnut, the monopoly on the legitimate use of violence is what defines modern government, and this monopoly is jealously protected against the second-guessing of puny civilians.

...The first step to controlling the police is to get rid of the fantasy, once and for all, that the law is on our side. The law is firmly on the side of police who open fire on unarmed civilians.

… “[Internal Affairs] will never, ever credit the claim of police abuse. They hide witnesses, they push witnesses around. The only time I cooperate with them is when I know I have their hands tied behind their back.”

… The reality is, it is extremely difficult to get law enforcement to police itself, and self-regulation [in the nation’s police departments] is, …just as it is in poultry processing or coal mining, a sick joke.

… What about all the times when excessive force suits get settled out of court? …The union covers the officer’s lawyer, and research from Joanna Schwartz of UCLA Law School found that governments, not individual officers, paid out 99.98 percent of the damages. Settlements and damages aren’t paid by the police department, …but typically out of the general municipal budget.

…In the unusual instances when a law enforcement officer is convicted, the penalties tend to be remarkably light.

…Such Scandinavian-style lenity is quite different from the mind-numbing severity of sentences inflicted on non-cops.

Why It’s Impossible to Indict a Cop | The Nation

Sigh….