Officer Eugene Goodman put his life on the line and saved untold congresspeople without firing a shot.

It really boils down to integrity. People who possess it, just do the right things.

politics imgflip.com/i/4tkqgp

Article

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55623752

So.....pretty much 100% of the time then.

nerp

If you have to default to the single worst example of what a cop shouldn't do to prove your point then you didn't have much of a point to begin with.

Notice I said "pretty much". That means, "The vast majority of". That means there are some excluded from whatever the original point (that cops do good) was.

By pointing out a singular incident, that means you must in fact agree with me that cops overwhelmingly do good...we both agree that the neckhold was unnecessary (fatally so).

If you want to contest me on this matter however, then I ask that you provide a list of all incidents in which cops have committed a clearly illegal act and then compare it with a list of every recorded incident of cops acting wholly within the law and with honor. I guarantee you the resultant data will show cops overwhelmingly enforce the law well and serve with honor.

The singular incident I point out also happens to be the singular flash point that most conservatives rallied to in defense of “Blue Lives” last year — despite Mr. Chauvin having been instantly terminated by his own PD, condemned by PD’s around the country for his actions, and charged with homicide to boot.

Given the total lack of sympathy from the Right about one of the most egregious incidents of policing in modern memory, liberals walked away from this believing that the average conservative viewpoint in this country was, effectively, that anyone empowered with a gun and badge and uniform could do no wrong.

Relatedly, I don’t know how much you follow ImgFlip inner politics, but a meme of the “All Lives Splatter” variety was chosen as “honorable mention” ImgFlip political meme of last year.

imgflip.com/i/4tgyts

Yes, of all the thousands of political memes submitted to ImgFlip last year, a meme making light of weaponizing vehicles as a tool of vigilante terror against BLM protestors (which actually happened IRL on dozens of documented occasions) made the #2 slot.

imgflip.com/i/4fnko6

I lodged my vigorous objection to the inclusion of not 1 but 2 “all lives splatter” memes in the short-lost of 9 top political memes of 2020, to no avail and to plenty of ridicule.

imgflip.com/i/4tckr6

So, yeah. The reflexive defense of Blue Lives and, even more fundamentally, running roughshod over Black Lives in a disturbingly literal sense is an animating force on the right.

I don't follow imgflip politics, I joined the site less than a year ago, so I'm afraid I cannot comment to matters that occured before then. I should note for posterity that the 'all lives splatter' joke really doesn't have a place outside of dark humor circles, and I would never use it to seriously rebut any pro-protest or pro-riot argument.

With that aside, I'll then address your initial and very good point; why did so many people flock to the defense of the officer? Well, I contend that it was for one or more of three reasons:
A) The body cam footage wasn't widely viewed until weeks after the incident, by which time it had become cemented as either a 'good' or 'bad' thing in the minds of pretty much everyone. This meant people were basing their entire opinion on the subject based off nothing but random internet sources (not very reliable) .

B) They choose not to look into the incident because it didn't concern them, thereby leaving the more vocal (and generally more radical) elements of the party to project the entire image.

C) They truly are racists, and unfortunately the most radical and outnumbered elements of a group tend to be the most vocal and projecting. We certainly saw those folks come out of the weeds at that time. :(

My money says that A and B comprise the majority of those who come under the heading of this conversation. It's tough to poll just how many people in this country are racist, for a myriad of reasons, but if I had to take a guess I'd say it's less than 5%. That may seem like a lot, but keep in mind we're still not even a century out of the century-long battle to pass and enforce Civil Rights legislation in this country. It's not inconceivable that some bad eggs remain, and when society is generally one thing it will overly focus on events counter to its culture.

I should also note that you did not really answer my original question regarding the ratio of 'good' to 'bad' police actions that occurred this year, so I'll assume you agree that by and large cops are good and honorable people whose organizations sadly are still home to truly horrible people who abuse their position.