The Problem With a Few Bad Apples

Why policing in America is rotten to the core

C. Seals
LEVEL

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Photo by ludovikus at Canstock

Consider this hypothetical scenario: You’ve got a box full of apples. The majority of them, say 65, are ripe. But there’s also another 35 that are rotten. Unfortunately for you, there’s only one box and you’re transporting them on a very long road trip, so you have to keep all of the apples together.

You’re so happy that you have more ripe apples in the box; you don’t even think about the rotten ones.

Somewhere along the way, though, you notice a pungent odor coming from the decaying fruit.

You take a moment to check the box and see that the rotten apples have not only infested most of the ripe ones, but they’ve also polluted the box itself.

It’s at that moment you realize a sobering truth: Bad apples don’t vanish just because you have a few more good ones.

They rot and corrode the good apples and eventually destroy the box where they all reside.

I’m sure you understand this metaphor.

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C. Seals
LEVEL
Writer for

I have to live this kind of life, to write the things I need to write.