Once we taught our kids they were responsible for their actions. Now we teach them to rationalize what they do. Once our police academies taught cadets that they had an image to uphold and that how they behaved reflected on them and their fellow officers. Now they teach their students that they are the sole line against barbarism and old night, and that civilians are either sheep to be controlled, or wolves to be destroyed.

The situation is not going to change until we take a stand and show our protectors that we are capable of protecting ourselves.

If it has, I missed it...

I am curious. If OTB is dedicated to the rule of law, when will we hear a call for Gonzales to resign/be fired?

I think it's already been done.

More of Scalia's "new professionalism" at work!

Yep.

I guess watching "Cops" is my guilty pleasure, supplanting The Jerry Springer Show or maybe Geraldo's old talk show. Gak!

I must confess not to watch "Cops" on a regular basis and that most of the episodes I've seen have been snippets that I've caught for one reason or another. Still, most of the officers I've seen on there are belligerent, unprofessional, bullies who seem to be escalating the stress of the situation.

Mostly, the perps are not hardened criminals drunken yahoos with sub-room-temperature IQs. But rather than trying to cool down the situation, they go into Respect My Authoritay mode and back people into a corner, inciting stress reactions.

Yeah, they can get pretty rough with folks, but as best I can recall, it's only after the "suspect" has given them good cause.

Right, like Kathryn Johntson who was murdered by the police? Or the air force MP who was shot by a San Bernardino sheriff's deputy while doing precisely what that deputy was ordering him to do? We'll skip any of the hundreds wrong door raids that Balko has dug up?

When the populace start seeing the police as something to be distrusted, that is a bad thing for society. When the cops start to see themselves as seperate from the society they are protecting, that is a bad thing. When cops start to look like a paramilitary force, that is a bad thing.

Yeah, they can get pretty rough with folks, but as best I can recall, it's only after the "suspect" has given them good cause. Well, they can shout a lot when they're telling someone to get on the ground and such, and sometimes in the heat of the moment they give confusing or contradictory direction, but I wouldn't describe their behavior as "thuggish."