>>In fairness, it must be scary to be a cop in a restless US neigborhood. You never know when you'll get a split second's notice that somebody is opening fire. Shoot first and ask questions later used to be satire but in 2015 it may be the best route for a cop who wants to make it home to see their kid rather than attending their own emotional funeral in a box while the kid salutes the dead hero.
>
>So, let's get real.
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>-A man in NY was killed by a chokehold applied by an NYPD cop arresting him for selling cigarettes one at a time rather than selling full packs.
>-A man in North Charleston, SC was shot and killed by a cop who stopped him for not paying child support.
>-A woman in Tx hanged herself in her cell (or so it seems) She was pulled over for not signaling when changing lanes. The cop who pulled her over told her to put out her cigarette. When she refused, he ordered her out of the car. She resisted and he took her to jail forcibly where she hanged herself.

And those are only a tiny handful of recent examples - there have been quite a few other incidents in recent days. It seems as if it's a never-ending cycle.

>I was among a large batch of military inductees being sorted out for aptitudes and assigned jobs.
>We were given IQ and aptitude tests and interviews.
>Those who couldn't do anything else were made cooks.
>Those who couldn't make it as cooks were made MP's (Military Police)
>
>These myths about cops like Kojak and Inspector Morse are nonsense. Most of these people couldn't hack it in a real job.
>I have many relatives in the NYPD and the NYFD.
>The NYFD guys often face real dangers. Some of my cousins have saved entire families.
>The NYPD guys hand out traffic tickets, do crowd control at Mets' games and count the days till they can retire.

...yes but in all fairness, some of the cops are indeed really good, a some of the positions do require a college degree. But I don't think it's just a 'few bad apples' that are the problem, I think the norm now is not good. Plus in recent years we've seen a HUGE spike in the militarization of the police. It's almost like the police to not want to be police, they want to be a military force and have all the equipment to back it up. Problem of course is they don't have the training for any of that - so you end up with a bunch of trigger happy cops caring around automatic assault rifles and unnecessarily pointing them at people - which is an obvious recipe for disaster. Now you've got swat teams armed to the teeth busting down doors and raiding homes - then you end up with stupid crap like this http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/07/us/georgia-toddler-stun-grenade-no-indictment/ ...which of course the cops got away with. If no one trust the police anymore, the police have no one to blame for this but themselves. Quit abusing citizens and perhaps that will change. Actually prosecute them when they do something wrong (ya know, like shot a guy in the back or choke a guy to death over a damn cigarette). Part of the reason this crap happens is because the cops think..errr know... they can get away with it, just like they've done for years. When you got a video of what happened and still no charges, that's pretty messed up.