I have been wanting to write this piece for weeks. I keep trying to find a way to express my thoughts in a way that is not inflammatory. I have failed. I don’t think it exists. This was the best I could come up with.

I get it. We are fed up with cops using Taser devices, arresting, beating, and even murdering black and brown people. Enough is enough, and something needs to be done. A lot needs to be done.

The system sucks. Most of us know it needs to be completely torn apart and rebuilt. And we know that the powers that be probably won’t let that happen. It’s only a matter of days or weeks till the next time three or four white cops beat and kill another young black man for absolutely no reason. We feel helpless and even hopeless that it will ever change. I do, too!

The reason ACAB is problematic is straightforward.

Suppose we convinced the minority of caring and respectful cops to leave the job because everybody says they are bad. We are left with 100% violent, aggressive, racist, sexist, and homophobic people paid to walk around with a utility belt full of ways to take out their aggression and hate whenever they want, knowing there are no consequences! Or said differently, if the 10% of cops who are thoughtful people who care and support their communities leave their jobs, we are assuring our worst nightmare.

No more good people will want to be cops, knowing everybody thinks they are bad. We are left with only armed hitmen with a license to kill!

If most surgeons’ default setting is to sharpen their number 10 blade, cut open, and remove body parts without exploring other options for treatment. If 70% of surgeons come from this mindset, that leaves us 30% of surgeons who want to explore alternative treatment modalities before suggesting surgery. If we made a national campaign of ASAB, all surgeons are bad; what do you think 30% would do? How many will be left at the end of the campaign? Or possibly even more problematic, how many suitable, thoughtful, levelheaded, and open-minded people will study and attend med school for a decade, knowing that everybody already thinks they’re bad before they even finish pre-med? If we convince the wonderful people who want to become surgeons not to become surgeons because “they’re all bad,” who will be left to help you, your family, friends, neighbors, and community?

When I was ten years old, my parents got divorced. The following year, my father had cardiac arrest, died, was brought back to life, and had quadruple bypass surgery. Later that year, my mother had breast cancer and had both breasts removed. Yes, I know, no 10-year-old should ever go through a divorce, their father dying and coming back to life, and their mother having cancer and having her breasts removed all in 18 months. It sucked, and it was brutal. And… What if we had talked all the good people out of being surgeons, and I lost both parents that year?

How about lawyers? We all have stories amongst our friends and family of dishonest lawyers who overcharged and didn’t do anything valuable. What if we started a campaign against ALAB? All lawyers are bad, and the good ones who want to create justice, safety, and equality left the profession because we told them they were bad. And just like with surgeons, we convinced all the future attorneys who want to fix the system are convinced that no matter what they do, people will decide they are bad because all lawyers are bad, and they become accountants. Who are you going to find to defend you against a corporation that stole money from you, or an ex-partner who beat you and tried to kill you, or back to the cops again, who are you going to get to defend you if you are a black or brown person walking down the street and you get beaten, arrested and jailed for walking down the street black or brown? Who will defend you if we convince all good people to leave or not enter the profession?

I have known some good cops in my life. They are the minority, but they exist, and they matter!

I’ve often heard the argument that all cops are bad because they are part of a corrupt system. What government and corporate system is not flawed, if not downright corrupt?

What system isn’t harmful or corrupt: law enforcement, military, justice, education, healthcare, insurance, pharmaceuticals, political campaigns, banking, investments, publishing, air, food, water, social services, farming, industrialized livestock agriculture, automobiles, parks & recreation, mass transit, air travel, Congress, Supreme Court, trash, sports, entertainment, taxation, pop psychology, mental health, “wellness,” news media (mainstream & alternative), tech, local building & permits? The list can go on for days.

Do we REALLY want to have the honorable people in every one of these systems leave because we decide they are all bad because they are part of a corrupt system? Of course not!

Sure, I have fantasies about tearing the whole damn thing down. But that won’t happen tomorrow morning, the next, or anytime soon. Right now, at this moment, we need to support, care for, and encourage good people to stay in the corrupt systems to stay.

We need honest, caring people with integrity to be politicians. We need medical professionals who see beyond the pharmacy and the knife. We need lawyers who want to help the single parent with two kids. We need judges that are not racist and sexist. We need therapists and counselors with enough values and self-awareness to know that most of their caseload needed to be discharged years if not decades ago, knowing they will decrease their income. For the record, I’m a counselor with a private practice, and it terrifies me how long therapists and counselors work with people for years and decades that show minimal progress and growth. We need clergy that sees people in need, not a source of revenue, and not a source to exploit people and their bodies, especially children.

We need cops to come into the home of a domestic violence call, and the first thing they do is make sure she is heard, respected, protected, and safe!

All cops are bad will ensure that the good cops within the corrupt system trying to shift their mindset and practices convince them to find another profession. Any young person who dreams of being a law enforcement professional to make their community safer will not want to intentionally sign up for people saying they’re bad before they even show up for their first day on the job!

The best way to change a corrupt system is to support the good people within the system and encourage exceptional people to get trained to do that work. If not, we are strategically setting ourselves up to have 100% bad apples growing on bad trees rooted in rotten soil with no promise of anything changing. Let’s support the good apples and healthy trees before they rot too!

How many careers that regularly put their life on the line would you go into if you knew everybody thought you were bad before you even started?

I know that ACAB feels fun, impactful, and powerful. We collectively give them all the finger whenever we say or write it. It is easy to confuse feeling powerful, alive, and part of a movement without actually being part of effectively shifting a system. How often have you shifted your behaviors and mindset because people laughed at you, insulted you, and said you were bad? Exactly. Never. Why do you think it will be productive and effective with people who think being violent, aggressive, and powerful is the answer to all problems?

If we are committed to walking the walk and doing the work to create meaningful and sustainable change in law enforcement or anywhere else. In that case, we need to support those working hard to do the right thing and those who want to be part of the system that changes; we need to practice the values we want them to embrace. Calling them bad doesn’t meet any of those needs.