Why do we bother?

[Vuk]

The cops at the fire weren't firefighters and should not have been allowed to decide whether or not a total quarantine of the fire was required, thats for firefighters to decide.

And Vuk, I love you man, but you're idea that they are scared to be cops because of police-hating is high on rhetoric and low on thought. There's a reason people hate police, and its not because of the media, it's because of personal experiences and the actions of the police. While I agree that a lot of US cops are good folk, the fact that they "put their life on the line" does not give them free riegn to do when and what they, which is exactly what they do and more often than many think because a lot of it still goes unrecorded. And when it is recorded the person who did the recording is suddenly criminalized or has an agenda. I think a lot of this abuse stems subtley and indirectly from the blank check that has been provided to cops for the drug war so we could grow our prison culture that politicians profit so richly from, but thats another thread entirely.

Sorry Major, but 99% (oh no! There goes another hyperbole! Replace that with most :P) of the people I know who have a gripe with the police have it because:
A) The had committed a serious crime such as drug possesion and the police did what they are paid to do by the people of the country and took their drugs away from them.
B) They have gotten speeding tickets that they think they do not deserve, so they decide to hate the police for it. :P
C) They saw this thing on TV, or they read this thing in the paper, etc.

Most times (there, no hyperbole) that people, in my experience, have a gripe against the police because of some experience that THEY personally had with the police, they were breaking the law and the police did not act inappropriately at all. Those people then latch onto whatever stories they can find in the media to justify their hate of the police. My ex-gf used to hate the police because she had her liscense suspended because she kept speeding. Ever since then she would use any story that came onto the news to justify her hatred for the police. It had nothing to do with the police abusing power though, it to do with her not liking that she had to answer for endangering other people's lives and speeding. The subject is actually what eventually led to us breaking up. :P She did not like the fact that I thought her behavior was putting other people's lives in danger and that she deserves to have her liscense suspended for continuing it. :P Point is though that she, like so many others that I have known, have broken a law in a way that they thought was harmless, and have had to answer for it, so they do not like the police and cry police abuse of power whenever there is an incident of it in the papers. What you said about police thinking they have free reign and doing whatever they want is ridiculous. They are loaded down with so many restrictions and regulations that it would make your mind boggle, and most of them do their best to uphold them. They are not above the law themselves, and they know it. As far as tons of police abuse going on behind the scenes and people not reporting it...I do not know of anyone who would not protest if a policeman misused his power (and many even if he didn't :P).

EDIT: Just saw the video you linked to. That is my point exactly Major. Things like that happen, and instead of labelling the person as a nut and punishing the person, they label police as "pigs". It was one mental case who did this. If it was an auto mechanic who shot someone, would it be fair to say that auto mechanics are pigs and they abuse their power? People take these isolated cases of nuts who get into the profession and abuse it, and use it to justify a hatred of the police.