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What is even more vexing is the hypocrisy in hating River for being a cop (and one who can eventually quit, mind) despite other fictional characters affiliated with the police or the government being immensely popular, with one of the most popular examples being Leon Kennedy, who started as a cop before becoming a government agent.

And from what I've gathered, and is something other posts have also mentioned, those who loathe and badmouth River - in the same vein - like Takemura, even though he advocates for corporations and chooses to stay loyal to the Arasaka family (specifically Saburo and Hanako) in spite of being aware that their endgame goals are the farthest thing from noble, and even they are aware of him being someone who puts loyalty and honor above any and all reason. And despite his admittedly hilarious moments with V and the fact that he never tries to dupe them, he doesn't think highly of them either and derisively calls them a thief on more than one occasion.

Yet with River, these same people don't try to even objectively take into consideration how he ends up leaving the police force because he is someone who genuinely wants to do good but realizes that goal will go nowhere in an establishment as corrupt as the NCPD. Yes, you can say he's idealistic and naive to a fault, but he does acknowledge this and learn from it. But of course, his haters are so intent on keeping focus on the fact that he's introduced as a cop and use that to mock and deride him to hell and back.

Those two examples of double standard treatment (Leon and Takemura) are only the tip of the iceberg. Granted, liking/hating/not having much of an opinion on each character is typically a case-to-case basis. You can like this criminal character but then dislike another criminal character because of their differing personalities or generally because of how they're portrayed or written differently, among other reasons. Even then, it's telling that all in all, a good portion of the supporting cast of Cyberpunk 2077 - objectively speaking - includes characters who loyally serve either corporations or the government (either wholeheartedly or otherwise), had sold out to them in the past, or is generally a militaristic person. And some of them are divisive among the fanbase, but River tends to get singled out negatively (and rather vitriolically at that), and the purpose of his character is to glorify the police and/or the government.

It's not just River; I noticed through posts on various platforms (primarily Discord, Reddit and Twitter) that certain other characters in Cyberpunk 2077 - as long as they have a badge - tend to get ragged on immediately due to the real-life opinion of ACAB, which ends up bleeding into a biased perception of fictional characters. To name a few:

Ayden Daniels. Aside from being an NCPD badge, he's not shown to have a pleasant personality (from what we see in his interactions with V at least) and gets very upset at V if they save his life (because saving him inevitably results in some of the medical equipment they klepped from Arasaka getting damaged), and is decried for being more corrupt than the actual corrupt cops because - as described in his bio - he's a "pragmatic badge" who's willing to forge evidence if it means criminals who otherwise would've gotten away ends up getting sent to prison instead. And yet, if other vigilante or at least non-law enforcement characters pull a similar stunt to capture elusive bastards, it's all good. Okay then…

I've seen some call Mendez an utter POS, even though the worst trait about him is his well-intentioned but undoubtedly poor attempt of showing tough love - and he clearly shows guilt and regret for his words if Barry commits suicide. While he definitely needed a push in properly empathizing with Barry, when told about the latter's friend Andrew actually being a pet tortoise and that Barry kept mum about that little detail because he thought Mendez would make fun of him, Mendez actually realizes just how bad his friend's situation is, which allows him to reach out to him better by recounting a experience about witnessing a horrific crime but not being able to do anything about it because the culprit had connections to higher-ups (which Barry had also gone through, and it's why he left, to begin with).

However, there is one cop character who I noticed that still gets dunked on… but not as often or as viciously. This character is Anna Hamill: another rare "good cop" character like River who her fellow cops want dead because her investigations ended up rocking the boat a bit too much. Even Regina, who was hired to have her offed, would prefer that V handles the situation peacefully because Anna is no criminal; at worst, she's just someone with a good and steady set of morals and integrity, meaning she's someone who doesn't belong in a place Night City.

Indeed, most do not opt to kill her and just talk her down or tell her to leave the city. Which is surprising given the vitriol that the few other cops that aren't corrupt get a lot of flak, and again, she is similar to River in being a rare kind of badge that genuinely wants to do good. This makes me wonder: if River was in her exact position, and it was up to the player to choose what to do with him, would he have received the same leniency?

The way I see it, the essence of the quest with Anna Hamill more or less mirrors the development of River's questline, and the Aesop it means to impart about how good intentions won't get you far if you work with the police, and they might even turn against you for that. To recap:

After investigating enough about Mayor Rhyne's death, which he's able to do so thanks to V (due to being hired by the Peralezes to look further into the matter), he decides to rock the boat by trying to reopen the investigation even though Detective Han warns him that all he'll get is quite the ugly backlash. And as "The Hunt" would show, he gets suspended for his efforts.

Having been suspended, which means he doesn't have anyone in the force to turn to, he asks V for their help in his search for his nephew. In "I Fought the Law", he's establsihed as mostly rule-abiding since he - without a warrant - can't personally enter the Red Queen's Race club to investigate the scene; though he does get around it by sending V, a merc, instead. But in "The Hunt", where he mentions that he's officially not allowed to do anything about the case with Peter Pan, the fact that he's breaking and entering the NCPD lab shows his willingness to act outside the law if necessary.

When River and V get caught red-handed by Yawen, River doesn't even show any disapproval if V tells Yawen that the police does jack to help the public ("Feed 'em analysis, they shit out failure.") and will even counter Yawen's accusation that it's that kind of thinking why Night City is lawless by essentially calling her a hypocrite (since she's all but outright stated to have cheated in her medical exams).

If V helps him to the end, River proves that like Anna (in a potential ending where she goes on a last stand attacking those who set her up), he's also capable of doling out some understandable vigilante justice by expressing his intention to kill Anthony Harris. V can either tell him to go for it or to not even bother since Harris, at his current state (brain-dead, under constant police watch, will never fully recover if he wakes up, and is also likely to be executed if he does come to), isn't worth the effort and River should focus his efforts on watching over his family instead, something that River does see the point of.

In another ending to the gig with Anna, which is only possible with a Nomad V, Anna can be told that Night City doesn't deserve her and she's better off with the nomads, to which she'll take their advice and join the Aldecaldos. River doesn't do that, per se, but he does come to a similar realization that continuing to work with the NCPD isn't worth the effort anymore and leaves, planning to become a private detective instead. And this is notable character development on his part since in your very first chat with him, he didn't have the highest opinion of PIs.

In addition, the quest involving the Semimaru has him say this outright when you manage to get the car and find out the history of its users (where some other NCPD cops use it to run over whoever they don't like), to which he then tells you to have the car and he'll ensure that the NCPD won't be looking for it any time soon.

"I know what justice looks like - sometimes you gotta find it outside the established system. If the rulebook's written by the corrupt, what's the point in following it?"

So to return to part about why Anna, even though some still do get dismissive of her or are notably blase about her, doesn't have it as bad as the other few non-corrupt cops introduced in the game. This is where we take into consideration the difference them and Anna: that being she's a female cop, and also has an attractive-looking face, which qualifies her as what's known as a "fair cop".

While many fans don't want to admit it, the attractiveness and "availability" of a character plays a huge role in how quickly or easily the audience can be willing to either excuse them or sympathize with them, and sometimes simply "flipping the coin" (or rather, switching their gender and sometimes, even their preference/orientation) can quickly change the fandom's opinion of them in the blink of an eye. This is a hill I'll be dying on, but I'm sure that if, say, Panam and Judy's genders were reversed, they wouldn't be as popular as they are now. And likewise, if River was genderbent, he wouldn't have as much haters.

Now as for the claim that the game is promoting copaganda, it definitely is not. I even have to clarify that I'm not speaking in defense of the NCPD. It is an undeniable fact that the NCPD as a whole is corrupt and inefficient, with their current police commissioner even making a deal with Scavengers to eliminate homeless people (this shows up in one of the many NCPD gigs you can do across Night City). So the public not thinking highly of them isn't without reason, to the point that even Ziggy Q (who is a blatant corpo-shiller, mind you) preys on this fact for publicity.

But like in any kind of corrupt/evil organization, whether they're affiliated with the law or not, there are members who embrace the corruption and there are those who don't give in to it and even attempt to fight it, even if it's an uphill battle, or if that won't do anything, they leave and go do their own thing instead - the very latter of which is what River does at the end of his questline. Yet to this day people still use the reasoning of "He's a cop, so yuck!" to basically boo and throw tomatoes at him nonstop.

Heck, the game itself has V and Johnny acknowledge that River is a decent badge, the latter's dislike of River aside.

In "I Fought the Law", V expresses skepticism when River reveals why he showed up at a certain press conference (where a cyberpsycho snuck their way in and attempted to kill Mayor Rhyne): mainly because he heard about the cyberpsycho's next actions and was attempting to thwart them. Sure, he got awarded with a medal for it later, but he didn't know that at the time; as far as he was concerned, it wasn't an active case he was assigned to, and he had nothing to gain from it. He took the initiative to help just because he could. V even notes that a cop - let alone a person - in Night City doing the right thing just because isn't exactly a common occurrence.

V: So you saw him as a potential threat, decided to warn the mayor? Just like that, 'cause… ya got a good heart? River: Make it sound like that's somethin' to be ashamed of. V: Ashamed - no. Just not somethin' you see every day.

Other posts have already expressed this, but if you think that "Johnny hates River so that means he's trash" is a valid reason, then you're just grasping at invisible straws. Johnny, being Johnny, doesn't like River on principle, and even this is one of the pettier cases. He's a badge, something which immediately won't sit well with a chaotic and anarchistic terrorist like Johnny. And their personalities couldn't be any more different, which means they're unlikely to be friends if they ever meet.

But that's about it, really. Where Johnny can get rather savage about Judy herself and about and helping her with both Evelyn and the other dolls, the worst he says about River is that he's a cop (or eventually an ex-cop) and gripes that V still continues to hang out with him, but even he doesn't argue that River is a rare kind of cop in a conversation with male V during "The Hunt":

Johnny: Cops seem to like you. Careful this one doesn't start sendin' you out for donuts. V: Whaa? No, River's all right. Johnny: For a cop, you mean. V: Not every cop's a bastard, just like not every rockerboy's a narcissistic dickhead. Johnny: Dunno, V. You ever actually met a rockerboy who didn't fit that description? V: All in all… No.

All he can complain about if V and River sleep together is that he, being in V's body, experiences the whole thing as well ("Can't believe you're making me fuck a cop."). Yet even I'm sensing that he wouldn't have made that complaint if River was a woman, considering his reaction if V accepts a certain proposition from Meredith Stout (who is actively working for a corpo).

Meredith Stout invited you over to her room at the No-Tell Motel? Shit, V, don't know whether to give you props or talk you out of it… Either way, you're telling me your secret for picking up corpo chicks.

So at that point, it's obvious that he's nitpicking about V and River getting together when he can't come up with anything else more cutting/insulting to say.

Honestly, I can go on and on but this post is meant to focus on the topic about River being unfairly disliked and maligned (almost) solely on the basis that he's a badge, and I've said what I can say.

And no, I'm not expecting everyone to be his fan instead. Every character has their fans, their haters, and those in-between. But there's a difference between simply disliking a character and outright slandering them, the latter of which seems to be the unlucky recipient of both then and even now. There's also a difference in a solid character who just wasn't given enough content and a badly-written character, and River's haters have this tendency to deliberately conflate the two.