There is the crime of doing. Then there is the crime of conspiracy, the covering up of known crimes or the willful ignorance so you can maintain plausible deniability. The Catholic Church practiced this to protect pedophile priests. The GOP does the same to protect their ties to the most vile racist, misogynist, and anti-GLBT hate groups in the nation. Willful ignorance, nothing to see here folks, please move along.
Like the police, these groups circle the wagons and refuse to proactively clean up their own mess. Sure, they'll pay lip service when the most horrendous actions are publicly discovered, but only when they are busted.
The NYPD and police in general now suffer the same fate as the GOP and Catholic Church. If you don't like being called a racist, stop hanging out with racists. Stop acting like racists. If you don't want to be treated like a criminal, stop protecting criminals. If you want to be treated with respect, treat others respect.
Yes, there are many good cops out there. However, if they protect the criminals in their midst, they are guilty of conspiracy. They are cowards. Conspiracy is a criminal act.
Yes, there are priests that are not pedophiles. Heck, you may even be able to find a republican who isn't a racist. (Okay, that may be a bridge too far.) But until these groups show the country that they are willing to proactively point out and expunge these errant members, they will be judged by sharing a stage with them.
Police, if you want our respect, opt out of the us/them mentality of the thin-blue-line conspiracy syndrome and start prosecuting the criminals in your midst.
PS to President Obama: Same applies to the war criminals in our midst. If the US ever wants to regain the trust of the world, we need to prove to them we are capable of fixing ourselves when we are broken.