Criminal Brutality
 

There is a reason I have the utmost respect for cops and give them leeway when performing their duties. This is one of those reasons:

Minkler shooter took his own life, police chief says - Afternoon& - fresnobee.com

Calif Deputy Dead, Officer Critical After Shooting - cbs13.com

Guy goes crazy and starts unloading on cops. Im suprised the cops were as restrained as they were and didnt just drive an armored van into the house to kill the SoB.

Stuff like this is the reason I dont hate cops or think they are controlling freedom-killers. There is the occasional dumb cop story, but for the most part you only hear about the deeds of law enforcement when a "suspect" (aka criminal) shoots a cop during a traffic stop because hes afraid to go back to jail.

If you dont like the laws, tough, but dont give the cop shit about it, hes just doing his job. And if you are always afraid of a knock at your door or nervous when a cop happens to be driving next to you, maybe you need to change how you live your life.

Re: Criminal Brutality
 

Certainly in the UK he's not just doing his job, the law empowers him to arrest people but it rarely obligates him to.

Re: Criminal Brutality
 

They did not know whether or not other people were still inside. The first article stated that they manged to get the gunman's wife out of the house. Going in guns a blazing would have placed more officers in danger than was absolutely necessary.

Homewood Teen Jordan Miles Claims Police Brutality - kdka.com

A local kid was walking down the street when 3 uncover cops approached him because they thought he had a gun. They did not identify themselves as police offers nor show their badges. The kid thought they were gang members who came to abduct him so he ran from them. The police end up catching up to him, but they still did not identify themselves as police. So the kid, still thinking he is getting kidnapped by gang members, fights the police. The police fight back and the kid ends up in the hospital because of it.

Only a minority of the cops abuse their power, but there is no way to tell which cops do it.

Re: Criminal Brutality
 

A very very small minority "abuse" their power. You dont hear stories of the untold thousands of cops daily doing the right thing and taking dangerous people off the streets. You are damn quick however, to hear about one n00b cop making a mistake.

But that doesnt mean you should be any less respectful to a cop, and give him no reason to worry about if you are going to pull a fast one on him. Best believe one day when I am a cop and I think for even a heartbeat that my life is in danger, I am taking a SoB down. I am not about to die just so a repeat offender can skip out on a jail sentence for violating probation.

Re: Criminal Brutality
 

I think it's a given that criminals are bad, but I don't think that necessarily vindicates what actions a few cops with a god complex have done.

Texas Police Departments have acted on impulse many times and thrown people into jail, and then 20 years later they say, "oops we made a mistake sorry".

I remember a certain case in Louisiana here,

Louisiana shooting puzzles witnesses - Los Angeles Times

They justified the shooting with the ever popular, "he had a gun", but later investigation and witnesses testimony later showed the gun was planted to cover up their impulse action.

We're doing a favor to the good cops by calling out the actions of the bad ones, because the bad ones don't make their life or actions any easier, particularly in run down neighborhoods where things like this simply make them hate cops even more.

Re: Criminal Brutality
 

Just as a very small minority of people in other sectors (well bankers except perhaps =p ) abuse their position or do a shitty job. But that's no reason not to cover horror stories, complaints and such or discuss them.

Most people abide the law, and most people who break the law (such as for speeding and what not) aren't going to assault the police officer or even run away. Hence why people may not be too keen to be expected to be totally submissive to authority and follow instructions without question or using common sense. It may be pretty disrespectful to approach every citizen as if they might be out to shoot you or run away. It certainly doesn't promote descalation.

I'm glad deescalation is ranked highly among public servants of any kind overhere. Alright, I give you that here the risk of a person carrying a weapon (gun) might be smaller and thus the risk of getting assaulted.

My princple: Threat people like you would like to be threated.

Re: Criminal Brutality
 

There are police video shows on that do nothing but glorify cops. What other profession, save perhaps the military, can make such a claim?

If I were going to pull a fast one on you I'd hardly be swearing at you.

Of course officer, my ID? Driving license okay? Here it is. Business as usual.

Until you're close enough to get a knife in him, or he turns away long enough for you to get your gun out and then it goes south faster than he can react.

You say you don't want people being disrespectful but disrespect is communication, it shows something about how they think of you, puts you on guard. If they were perfectly polite while they were working themselves up you'd probably just think it came out of nowhere.