So why did I become a cop in the first place? Copaganda was very effective at convincing young me that policing was how you protected communities from crime. I now know that the safest communities aren’t the ones with the most cops, they’re the ones with the most resources. But at 19 I didn’t know that. I just knew that I wanted to keep people from being hurt the way I had been by violent crime. I learned quickly that there are no good cops. After 3 years I left.