A Few Bad Apples Spoil the Whole Bunch
Dispelling a Bad Faith Argument about Policing
The phrase, Just a Few Bad Apples, denies Black people’s experiences as invalid. It is a cruel way of saying, “It’s not that bad.” They claim these acts of violence are outliers. However, the force is consistent with a pattern of behavior we can trace back to the origins of this country. Furthermore, the saying goes, “A few bad apples spoil the whole bunch.” So, if the people defending police use this phrase, they should not take it out of context.
Part of the problem stems from a warrior mentality (Vitale, 2018).
Police officers, trained as warriors, must fight against the enemy. In America, African Americans are all citizens. Thus, it seems bizarre to place warriors amongst us. This decision appears less odd when you understand the history of policing.
Organized policing was one of the many types of social controls imposed on enslaved African Americans in the South. Physical and psychological violence took many forms, including an overseer’s brutal whip, the intentional breakup of families, and the private employment of slave catchers to track down runaways (Hansen, 2020).
There is no coincidence that modern policing emphasizes control over BIPOC…
