True alla 'dat.
But if it weren't for the video evidence and the brass balls it took to let it go to trial rather than accepting a quiet resignation from the department here is what every officer would be saying:
"She must have attacked him."
"You can't ruin a good officer's career because [take your pick] some scumbag lied about him or he made one mistake."
"Who are you gonna call when someone breaks into your house? The ACLU?"
"You're anti-Cop!"
Repeat for Diallo, handcuffed non-resisting men slammed into the BART station pavement and shot in the back of the head, handcuffed NOLA prisoners shot twelve times in the back (same week), young men shot for no reason except they were
Black and driving (their legally-owned) SUV in Texas, 92 year old women murdered in botched drug raids and
posthumously framed and so on.
At best they'll admit that there might be one or two bad apples, but they never skate for long because "cops are held to a higher standard". If they don't live in your town they'll allow as how your police bureau is known for having an unusually troubled police force. Their suggestion is always that you let Internal Affairs - never an independent external body - handle it and give more money for training.
Structurally police departments are run by bureaucracies and function internally as clans. That means procedures and SOPs come down from above but inside it's "One for all and all for one." The institutional reflex is to defend your own against outsiders. It's drilled in deep and early.
Usually it works. You have to have his back. He has to have yours. It breaks down when that loyalty runs up against the responsibility to subject your own to external standards of justice.
