When the media adopts a storyline, sometimes stories that fit into the narrative are retained while those that don’t quite fit are discarded. While there’s been a wholly justifiable focus on police brutality, there hasn’t been much attention paid to a group of people caught in the media crossfire: good cops who do a good job but are still treated like the bad guys. Those cops are quitting in high numbers. Consider the experience of Officer Lindsay C. Rose in Asheville, N.C.: “Various friends and relatives had stopped speaking to her because she was a cop. During a protest in June around Police Headquarters, a demonstrator lobbed an explosive charge that set her pants on fire and scorched her legs. She said she was spit on. She was belittled. Members of the city’s gay community, an inclusive clan that had welcomed her in when she first settled in Asheville, stood near her at one event and chanted, ‘All gay cops are traitors,’ she said. By September, still deeply demoralized despite taking several months off to recuperate, Officer Rose decided that she was done.” Rose wasn’t alone. At police departments across the country, “retirements were up 45 percent and resignations rose by 18 percent in the year from April 2020 to April 2021.” About a third of the Asheville police force has left the job. Their chief explains: “They said that we have become the bad guys, and we did not get into this to become the bad guys.” Neil MacFarquhar: Why Police Have Been Quitting in Droves.

+ NPR: Cops Say Low Morale And Department Scrutiny Are Driving Them Away From The Job.

+ And some closure from the case at the center of it all. Derek Chauvin sentenced to 22.5 years for George Floyd’s murder.