Sure and frankly I'm fairly sympathetic to what I think you are trying to say Steve. That there are a lot of cops that enjoy being the heavy way to much. But that still doesn't absolve you of some kind of rigor in making your case. Are cops, on the whole, lawless freaks? Your post does nothing to answer that basic question.

The fact that you ask the question indicates, to me, that there is a problem. Police are supposed to be professionals. Professionals do not lose their cool like so many cops have.

As Matt points out police officer is a pretty crappy job. Low pay and minimal training for very dangerous work. The question is why don't we demand more and the answer is because we don't want to pay for it. Just keep cutting those taxes and you will get your libertarian dream and it will be run by the equivalent of Somalian warlords

1. That isn't the libertarian dream, but an anarcho-capitalist dream.
2. It could turn out like very early Pennsylvania, Iceland, or even the Old West, which despite pop culture was not like the Somali Warlords.

I don't think throwing money at the problem is going to solve it. I don't think you are going to cure the militarization of the countries police departments by paying cops more. Here in CA one of our major problems is that public employees have very nice compensation packages. The regularly get pay increases higher than the general population and as Plunk notes have very good benefits.

For example Bernard Parks gets close to 100% of his pay as police chief. It is my understanding that is how it works for most police officers if you put in enough years.

Nothing justifies the kind of violence and quite frankly the thuggery these videos and stories show us.

Rick are you really defending this somewhat authoritarian position.

Sure and frankly I'm fairly sympathetic to what I think you are trying to say Steve. That there are a lot of cops that enjoy being the heavy way to much. But that still doesn't absolve you of some kind of rigor in making your case. Are cops, on the whole, lawless freaks? Your post does nothing to answer that basic question.

As Matt points out police officer is a pretty crappy job. Low pay and minimal training for very dangerous work. The question is why don't we demand more and the answer is because we don't want to pay for it. Just keep cutting those taxes and you will get your libertarian dream and it will be run by the equivalent of Somalian warlords

Unless of course these are extremely rare isolated cases. Only if these are routine everyday occurrences would they be "not that astonishing at all".

Rick are you really defending this somewhat authoritarian position.

"Murder isn't that bad becuase its rare."

Oh, and I see someone is in a foul mood today as well.

Nothing pisses off police officers more than someone who questions their authority or doesn't immediately do what they say.

True, true.

Unfortunately for them, pissing off a cop is not a crime. Nor is it cause for using force.

If you were to piss off a McDonald's employee they can't spit in your food. They would still have to smile and say, "Would you like fries with that?" You know, be professional.

Cops --better trained, better paid, and more important to our society-- do not have that same obligation, apparently.

They don't need to taser a naked man. They don't need to gang tackle an unconscious man who was just thrown out of a van. They don't need to strong arm ambulance drivers.

But they can...and they do.

The best one involved an Oklahoma police officer crossing into Arkansas to pull over a driver he suspected of carrying contraband. The driver was never in Oklahoma but that didn't stop the policeman. Unfortunately for the policeman, the driver was an off-duty policeman from Arkansas in his personal vehicle. After identifying himself, the Arkansas cop had to call for backup and it took several other cops from Arkansas to get the Oklahoma cop to back off. This case ultimately ended up in a federal law suit against the Oklahoma cop. I never learned the final disposition of the law suit but I am cheering for the home team so I hope the Oklahoma cop got reamed.

So, not that astonishing at all.

Unless of course these are extremely rare isolated cases. Only if these are routine everyday occurrences would they be "not that astonishing at all".

Maybe your inability to distinguish what is astonishing and what is not is what leads you to your crappy conclusions on economics.

Astonishing stories of police authority runamuck .........