There are lots of things that lots of folks don't like involving police. Their job isn't a popularity contest, though. Those guys walk around wearing what amounts to a target, wondering who's going to take a shot at them next, when, and where. How many of us go to work with the knowledge that there is a real possibility that we could get shot during our shift by someone who just doesn't like us for what we do? That one minute, you're driving around and the next you're involved in something that turns into a gunfight. I'll bet that Bruce VanderJagt didn't go to work without thinking, at least a little, that what happened to him could happen at any time. How many people have any idea what it's like to go to work knowing that at any time, you could be the target of any number of idiots who, in some cases, are trying to "prove themselves" for gang membership or some other utterly moronic reason to end someone's life? You expect that sort of thing could happen in a war zone. They expect it every day, in the places we call home.
Cops should be held to a higher standard. However, at the same time you can't hold them to the exact same standard as your average citizen. That's what happens every time some idiot thinks that some soldier did something wrong and tries to hang them for it. You can't put someone in combat, especially in the sort of situations that occur with insurgents involved in urban combat environments, and then hang them every time some bean counter thinks they may have shot the wrong person. Combat is difficult, dangerous, and stressful in ways that can't be described to someone that hasn't been there. It changes people, forever. I have absolutely no doubt that being a cop is similar in many ways. They can't always tell who the bad guy is until they tip their hand, and by the time that happens the officer is behind the power curve. But saying that they have to protect everyone and enforce the law, and then say they have to do it while everyone with a cellphone camera watches for them to do the first thing wrong, is unrealistic. Is it right for an officer to beat someone after they're cuffed? No. That's brutality. Is it right for the first person with a camera to edit video showing only what they want to when someone has been resisting arrest with a vengeance? No!
Bottom line : Before you paint a group of people, in this case police, with the same brush, walk a mile in their shoes and then see what you think.
That doesn't excuse the times when an officer breaks the law, any more than it excuses a military member who blatantly breaks the regs. But you can't armchair quarterback everything. This particular situation was badly handled by the officer, I agree. But it isn't indicative of every such situation.
And I've never heard of an officer taking an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Military, yes. Not police. Their job is to enforce the law in their area of responsibility, sort out crimes, and protect the people where they can. Because let's face it, there's no way they can protect all of us all the time. I believe most of them feel that is their duty, some might not.
My earlier post was directed at the outcome; to me it seems apparent that Govt has come to a point where it (in an institutional sense) feels that the connection with the electorate has come to the point that we are there for it, instead of the way it should be. Especially now with Maobama's mob in there.
Soapbox moment over.
