There is a distinction between individuals and organzations. Organizations are used by diffrent groups for different purposes - not necessarily consistent with the official or legit missions or perhaps justified ex post facto (as the garbage can theory claims). Hence organiuzations ar enot inherently bad or inherently good - they are used for diffrent ends by diffrent people in different social contexts - so to different interest groups they can be either good, bad or neutral at different times.
That holds for all organizations, including PDs and DAs offices. Their legit mission is crime prevention which is a generally good thing, but crime is a political notion. So if the cops bust wife beaters or dead beat dads in MD, they may do it as a result of political coult of women's group, but make enemies among those who support the rights of black males.
As far as individuals within organizations are concerned, DAs cops etc., they are a very different mix. Most of them are "satisficers" - doing the least amount of work they can get away with - such as busting petty drug users or stopping people on freeways - and staying away from more difficult cases. Of course to cover up their "satificing" or laziness inplain English, they would pursue those petty tasks with fervor and zeal - as most bureaucrats do.
However, such satisficing behavior may be wrongly interpreted by people who have inclinations toward a conspiratorial view of society - and see it as a ruling class plot to harass their particular sect or social group, say suburban commuters or ghetto dwellers. In a way, the conspiracists ex post facto rationalize satisficing behaviour just as the organizational actors do - except that organizational actors wrap it in legitimating mythologies, whereas conspiracists wrap it in de-legitmating mythologies.
OTOH, police and prosecutorial work is a bit different from other orgs, because it tends to attract assorted sadists and control freaks, such as retired MPs or Marines, hoodlums who got smart and found a way of beating up people and avoid going to jail, low-class low-skill dominant males who do not have too many opportunities to display their dominant behavior and other assorted misfits and creeps. They are not the majority, but there is enough of them on every police force to be highly visible.
So to answer your question:
- the latter category of people are definitely ratfuckers by most standards. Their numbers are relatively small, but the damage their create is immense, and they get most of the media and public attention;
- the "satisficers" are no diffrent from characters populating any other org, including the academia; they just do their job without working too hard, but the interpretation of their satisficing behavior by outsiders tends to be diffrent from that of other types of orgs, beacuse of the highly interactive and confrontational nature of the police work;
- as far as PDs and DAs as orgs are concerned, they are policy tools in the hands of different interest groups - and not a devilish ruling class plot against this or that sect, young males, "true" Americans or the working class in general. They are a necessary part of the institutional order of society -- even democratic and socialist states have them - sectarian conspiratorial drivel nothwithstanding. While these institutions are usually subject to political pressures and thus subject to political turf battles, they are summarily denounced by groups that are outside the political "loop" - such as militias or leftish sects and cults.
wojtek