I read an opinion piece in the Atlantic just last night by a former police chief who made that observation. She wrote that during her long career, she often justified police brutality to herself and others because of her misguided, insular loyalty to her police "family," from her worldview of the police as beleaguered heroes who sacrifice themselves to fight chaos and crime.

She said that view leads her and her colleagues to dehumanize "criminals" and the people who live in "high crime" neighborhoods. She was frank about how racist that is.

She wrote that she changed her attitude only after she began spending time with victims of police brutality and with the families of people the police killed.

She did not have much to offer, however, about how her personal experiences with attitude change could translate to action across police culture, which she says is so insular and troubling that more violent police abuse and coverups are inevitable.