I almost feel sorry for the four state troopers now facing involuntary manslaughter charges over the training-academy death of police cadet Enrique Delgado-Garcia. They’re paying the price for decades, if not generations, of institutional rot and resistance to any common-sense reforms at the academy and throughout the agency. They’re part of a broken system that’s long valued macho brawn over brains. But I’ve covered this topic before here and here and here.

Hopefully, these indictments will indeed lead to some meaningful change at State Police, as the Delgado-Garcia family and the Globe are urging. Unfortunately, the push for real reform won’t come from within. The current corrupt culture at State Police is too deeply embedded. It’s going to have to come from a legislature that itself has proven resistant to institutional change. So don’t get your hopes up too high.