Uhm. The logic of the draconian punishments was mainly to preclude reprisals - dead pimps beat up nobody.

You're still assuming that the police will actually pursue the case, and that the pimp will be convicted.

And that the pimp doesn't have friends who will revoke your breathing privileges on his behalf. After all, a democratic state can't just round up all a mafioso's friends and put them in a concentration camp. Rule of law doesn't work like that.

This too, is an issue that can be fixed. Better training. Job-video-logging. It would cost very little to record everything that happens near a cop. Cameras and storage media are cheap, sticking the former on their uniforms and the latter on their belts would not cost much. And would take all element of "he said, she said" out of any disputes about their behavior. Which is better for the cops, and better for the citizens.

A good deal better for the citizens and for some of the cops. Not so great for others.

There's the outright thugs, of course, who will object to no longer being able cook their testimonies or push their colleagues to cook theirs. My heart bleeds for them, but we sadly need to take them seriously as a political faction.

Additionally, there are certain times (such as the recent Chinese state visit) where cops are given a set of official instructions (such as keeping the foreign dignitary safe) and a set of... less official instructions (... from seeing any Tibetan flags). I'm not convinced that scapegoating the cop who gets caught on tape obeying an unwritten, extralegal order will do anything at all to make that sort of orders stop happening. And until that sort of orders stops happening, the police has what you might call a credibility issue.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.