Another day, another cop brutality story. I wonder, though--

[Jackpine Radical]

Is it possible that the problem has always been there but we're just getting better information about it these days?

Certainly the cops have been attacking the populace in behalf of the .001% for many years.

Haymarket Square comes to mind.

I also have an acquaintance who had been a captain in the State Patrol who talks about his time on the force, many years ago, when he and others would find any excuse to beat the hell out of motorists they had stopped.

There were no squad car cameras in those days. He also said that when he went to court to testify, when he swore to "tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth," he modified it in his head to "the truth, the whole truth, and whatever it takes to convict the sonofabitch."

I also think of the many stories I heard in Milwaukee years ago about a brutal police chief named Breier and his out-of-control cops with their throw-down weapons running roughshod over minority neighborhoods.

Maybe we've had for a cop problem for generations but we're just now recognizing it because of the universality of recording devices. The cops' version of the story was all that ever got out to the public in the past, but the power of the citizenry to document events and distribute the documentation via Youtube, etc. has leapt upward in scale by at least a couple of orders of magnitude in recent years.

From a scientist's point of view, estimates of changes in event frequency across time are confounded by breathtaking advances in the collection and dissemination of data.

[pscot]

1. I can think of a couple of differences

For one, I believe cops are more on edge than in the past. Especially since everyone seems to be packing these days. And the most frightened cop is the one who fires the first shot. Secondly, they are better armed. It's easier to produce a hail of bullets if you have a semi-auto pistol with a 16 round magazine than it is with a six-shooter. On the other hand, cops have always been a law unto themselves.

[DirkGently]

2. That, yes. And also what the post above points out.

And the overall escalation of military style tactics and weapons. Don't have to look much further than the S.W.A.T. type "takedown" of a fawn from an animal rescue shelter, and the justification that it was somehow just like a raid on a "drug dealer" to see that.

We are witnessing a deliberate expansion and intensification of overwhelming police force, as well as an increase in our ability to document it.

It's a potentially explosive combination.

[Logical]

3. The difference is that this "lock them up and throw away the key" mentality has....

convinced the american public that they need to be protected from criminals so they 100% support the police no matter what they do.

Jury's 100% believe the police. You are raised from day ONE that the police are your friends and you can always trust them.

The prosecutors are afraid to piss off the police because they need them to gather evidence so they do not go after bad cops.

The judges need the fraternal order of police to support them in the next election so they do not find police guilty of anything.

Police "unions" protect obviously bad cops.

The whole system is a joke.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

4. A difference is that now cops can be strung out on steroids with 'roid rage.

[Comrade Grumpy]

5. Must read: "Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces" by Radley Balko.

Out just last month.

[Comrade Grumpy]

6. Time for a national commission on law enforcement standards and practices.

[DirkGently]

8. That would be a good start. n/t

[msongs]

7. police are never your friends nt

[Worried senior]

9. I remember Breier

He always looked to me like he was out to get whoever he could get.

[Jackpine Radical]

10. Mayor Maier and Chief Breier.