No.
This is simply not an acceptable argument.
There is too much documentation, too much research, too many first hand accounts by police officers, perpetrators, and witnesses, and far too much need to supervise law enforcement officers to allow this argument to stand.
I am as pro-cop as they come. I put law enforcement officers above military on the social totem pole. You want a raise? You got it. You need more benefits? No problem. You want to sit down and tell me about the crap LEOs put up with on a day-to-day, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute basis? I will buy you a drink and listen as long as you like.
But you do not ever get to pull the “you’re not a cop, so you just don’t understand” argument.
I am capable of understanding that the job comes with pressures few other jobs come with. I totally grasp that there are times when the wrong decision costs a human life or worse. I know that the job takes its toll on mental and physical health, relationships, and ideals. That still doesn’t allow you to say that no one can stand in judgment of you.
Law enforcement officers wield an incredible amount of power - individually and as a class. Law enforcement tends to attract two different types of people - those who earnestly wish to serve society and help people, and those who want to get their hands on that power for their own uses. Those wearing the uniform bond with their fellow officers because they know their lives depend on each other. Without that trust, there is no way an officer can do their job. They have to accept each others’ personal faults and tolerate them, and do everything they can to protect their fellow officers, or it just will not work.
So, it’s unreasonable to expect law enforcement officers as a class to police themselves. A LEO cannot confront their fellow officer and accuse them of misbehavior and then expect that officer to have their back in a risky situation. The officer who steps out of their group to report misbehavior risks being completely ostracized and abandoned by the very people he or she needs to stay alive on the job. It’s human nature. It’s just not going to happen any other way.
That’s why law enforcement must always be subject to civilian review and authority. Every group of people with power must be held accountable to another, or the nature of their power will corrupt their sensibilities and turn them from their duties. Those individuals within the group who resist this will find themselves in just as much danger as someone outside the group.
We are the ones who pay the price when an officer steps outside their role of ‘protect and serve’. We are the ones who are harmed when an officer goes bad or even gets just a little too cynical. So, we are the ones who must supervise law enforcement officers, investigate any act that might appear abusive, and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law those individuals who use their office for their own gain - even if that gain is the chance to wale on someone who ticks them off.
Because what starts with one officer punching a drunken, resistant idiot, if allowed, sets the standards for other officers to take their frustration and anger out on people who can’t fight back, and it escalates from there.