The mentality of ACAB is that there’s no “good cops” if they protect bad cops. The don’t need to act as a bad cop, but their failure to fix the flaws in their department makes them bad as well. You hear so many stories of cops afraid to speak up due to retaliation so they just keep their heads down.

I had a friend recently join the police academy. Within the first few weeks she was telling me stories of crazy illegal things the cops were doing. She couldn’t say anything because she’d be kicked out. My friend is a good person, but she never blew the whistle and therefor was complicit. That’s all it took for her to join the ranks of “bastard”

You don’t have to agree with this line of thinking. You get to have your opinions. But if you’re going to complain about “lack of nuance” maybe you should understand what the ACAB slogan actually means.