Vice President Joe Biden worked in a soft rebuke of the Department of Justice at the 22nd Annual Top Cops Award Dinner in Washington Tuesday. 

In remarks praising the police for their selfless service, Biden said, "When you make a mistake, we come down on you like a ton of bricks."

BIDEN: What shape we’d be in as a nation if we didn’t have you doing the job... We expect you to do everything. We expect you to be constitutional scholars. We expect you to have instantaneous reactions to a crisis without making any mistake or without knowing what’s behind that door or what’s in that guy’s pocket. When you make a mistake, we come down on you like a ton of bricks. But you still do your job.

Biden also made sure to note that many of the "bravest among us" were not there because they had died protecting communities. 

BIDEN: Although we honor these women and men who are here because they are some of the bravest among us, some of the really bravest among us aren’t with us tonight. That’s the bitter part.

The subtext of Biden's comment on "com[ing] down on officers" certainly would not be lost on law enforcement personnel. The DOJ has been conducting a series of investigations into local law enforcement agencies, most notably the high-profile civil rights "witch hunt" conducted in Ferguson and the investigation just launched by newly-appointed Attorney General Loretta Lynch in Baltimore.