The problem isn't suspension with pay, which is the right thing to do when an accusation has been made, the accusation has been challenged, and an investigation is under way.

The problem is when that investigation is thought to be used as a cover-up.

Police who kill very rarely get punished publicly. Even in the case where an unarmed man (Jean Charles de Menezes) who was competely innocent of any crime was held down in his seat on the London Tube while seven bullets were fired into his head, none of the police involved were ever tried - the police commissioner was found guilty of breach of care to rhe man in question, and the force was fined.