The fundamental problem with the police is that it employs the wrong people. This is evident not just in its prejudice & abuse of power against the working class, minorities, activists & women, but in the general attitude of contempt towards the population at large.
This contempt is not just directed outwards, it also festers internally, hence the racism, sexism & classism (often inverted, e.g. contempt for graduates) reported by many who have ended up leaving the police. The question is, where does this spring from?
Given its consistency over time & geography (see the recent news about the ex-French policeman now identified as a serial killer), this milieu has been extensively studied from the political, sociological & psychosexual angles (e.g. Theweleit's 'Male Fantasies').
You can name it authoritarianism, Fascism, misogyny or whatever you want, but the key characteristic is not its organic prevalence (i.e. there are always arseholes in every society) but its protection & indulgence by the state. The Met have provided a perfect example of this.
The problem then is the violence of the state. It is this that elevates some of the worst people in society to positions of petty tyranny. We have a political establishment determined to give the police more power & a media obsessed with crackdowns on dissent & migrants.
Couzens may well have killed women whatever his job, but he actually did so within the framework of sanctioned state violence. Until that is addressed, we'll face similar outrages.
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