There is no "The Police", there are only individual police officers. And some of them are indeed bad guys. And some of them are merely incompetent.

So, I've read the referenced article, the referenced WaPo data base, and the comments on this post. I then compared the WaPo data against another data base, "Killed By Police - 2015". The two data bases are dramatically different with WaPo making the cops look much less dangerous, much more justified in their actions, and report significantly less fatalities. A couple of points I'd like to suggest that others consider.

The article compares the 'Black Lives Matter' BullS$!t to the problem of police killing citizens. As if the lies and actions of the 'BLM' movement compare in anyway to the lies and actions of police in this country. The author then goes on to 'cherry pick' certain data from WaPo and to falsify other information allegedly gleaned from WaPo in an attempt to justify his 'Cops are Great Guys' nonsense.

Some things are indisputable:
1. The ratios of males killed as a percentage of their representation in the population is dramatically higher than that of females.
2. The highest ethnic ratio of number of killings by police as a percentage of their representation in the population is Native American.
3. The second highest is African American.
4. Asian American is insignificant.
5. The numbers of children and teens killed is atrocious.
6. The numbers garnered so far this year tell the story of the number of lies and hidden reports told by police and the DoJ, since Congress in 1993(?) directed DoJ to begin accumulating such information, as reported to the American Public since that time.
7. The danger to cops doesn't even make the top ten most dangerous jobs in this country.
8. Americans are much more likely to be killed by American cops than by any form of terrorism.
9. Cops have become drastically more aggressive towards American citizens than at any time in our history.
10. Americans who don't offer immediate supplicating compliance to a cop are in lethal danger regardless of the reason or cause of the interaction.

And most disgusting of all, this country bears very little resemblance to the country envisaged by our revolutionary founders or as imagined by AR, and there are a number of commenters and posters on this site that defend what we've become, and those amongst us that initiate force against us to make us comply.

Police aren't supposed to be the bad guys. But if they are equipped with surplus military equipment, trained and encouraged to assume violence will occur, prone to escalate situations rather than de-escalate them, and asked to enforce laws and activities that are egregiously unconstitutional like roadway checkpoints and explosive forced entries into homes...how do you think they are going to be seen and treated?

Let me start by saying that my response is to the statement, "The police aren't the bad guys", not the content of the op-ed piece titled that way.

I will put it bluntly. I do not trust the police. I just don't. Everyone says that 99.whatever percent of all cops are good with just a few bad apples mixed in getting all the media attention. It's an easy, comfortable platitude I guess, but it flies in the face of reality. Bad cops CANNOT exist in a world full of good cops. As long as "good" cops remain quiet behind their blue wall of silence, you have a few bad cops and a whole bunch of guys aiding and abetting. That makes them all bad cops, in my opinion.

As far as this notion that they have a dangerous job, I don't buy that either. It seems that as often as not when there is video evidence of the interaction, the cops are the ones escalating the situation to a violent confrontation. They are trained to do that. Your civil rights mean nothing, probable cause means nothing, the actual law as it is written means nothing. When a cop with an attitude shows up on the scene, he is the law. Make no mistake about what I am saying with that. The guy with the gun, taser, baton, pepper spray, handcuffs, and a radio to call in his boys is the law. The actual law is of no consequence at all. They will do whatever they please to whomever they want with no fear at all of any kind of retribution. They get to write up the story of what happened in their report after the fact to cover any misdeeds, and they all know that none of their fellow officers will say a peep if it is full of lies.

The good news is that there is a way to improve upon this in a big way. I wish I could find the YouTube video that made mention of it, but there was a town in California that tracked all complaints of wrongdoing for their officers. Before all of their officers were required to wear body cameras, citizens' complaints were through the roof. After the officers were required to wear body cameras, the number of complaints plummeted. Both citizens and cops were on better behavior when all the cops wore a tamperproof, impartial 3rd party witness that would tell the unbiased, unvarnished story. Sometimes the cops were guilty of wrongdoing. Sometimes, the videos completely vindicated the police. Either way, the numbers of incidences dropped dramatically, and internal investigators were able to deal with an objective witness instead of 20 cops all swearing by the same lie to protect a brother in blue.

I started by saying that I do not trust the police. I do, however, trust my own judgement and what my own eyes and ears tell me. I would feel much better if all cops were required to wear tamper proof videos of the entire time they are on duty and those videos were made publicly available. If the cops would actually do that, I think they would get more respect and more/better convictions instead of charges being plead down by defense attorneys.

Just my $0.02.

Edit: Here's a YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UWud..., that makes the case I was saying about the drop in use of force incidents and citizens' complaints against the police. It's actually not the video i was referring to earlier in this post, but it says essentially the same thing. Also, if the use of force incidents drops so dramatically, how can anybody feel good about the police as they are today? If they know they are being recorded, suddenly they behave better? Presumably that means they were behaving worse before. One thing follows the other, no?

And if only 87.4% have had weapons, then how can only 0.96% have been unarmed?

How many people were shot (and didn't die?)? How many dogs were shot during no-knock raids? Why are there 20,000 no-knock raids in the US each year when they clearly violate the 4th Amendment?

The police may not be bad guys...(?)...but I am afraid of them. I can fight back against a criminal, but I am not allowed to fight back against a cop doing exactly the same thing.

Down this thread, there is a comment and a link by IamtheBeav. I think that if cops wore cameras, as the experiment in Rialto shows, then they would behave in a better manner.

Jan

I read the title of this thread just before I saw the story about three cops being arrested for killing a suspect in custody. That's on top of the CBS report that the cop who complained to her boss and the media that a teenage Arby's employee refused to serve her, culminating in calls by police to have the young man fired...only to find out the cop misunderstood a joke and the young man did absolutely nothing wrong.
So are cops the bad guys? More and more....

Too many laws on the books that serve no purpose but to pit "us" against "them". The more the laws, the more the division until the division becomes self perpetuating. And a cause for more laws. Just as the corrupt crony capitalist system attracts more and more cronies on both sides of the system, corrupt, immoral and unjust laws attract corrupt, immoral and unjust people to the police department and make criminals out of the rest of us so that we have more and more contact with the corrupt elements of law enforcement. If you are a law abiding citizen the only contact you are likely to have with law enforcement is with someone trying to throw his weight around. You will never meet the cop who doesn't care if you're doing 5 to 10 MPH over the limit. Only the guy who wants to "make an example out of you" for doing 2 mph over. And the more laws there are, the more you will run into him.

It's almost like someone wants us to not trust each other.

I disagree. Police and military are the henchmen of a very oppressive government (USA). They serve the bureaucrats and help keep them in power. They also arrange for the imposition of fines which support the very government that passes the laws and runs the courts. Perhaps there are some "good" cops who want to protect my rights- but they work for a system bent on taking away my rights.

Are they that much different from the SS in Germany in principle? The rules here arent quite as bad as Nazi rules, but look at how our police use the anti-drug laws to break down your door in the middle of the night. Its brutal.

"When the police break the law, then there is no law, only a fight for survival." --- Billy Jack

A cop who ain't a bad guy won't pull me dino over for a malfunctioning brake light and ask if I have a large sum of cash.
That bad guy cop would make a liar out of me.
Christian me doesn't think God would have it in for me, either. Why?
I take "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor" quite literally.
Should Daddy Warbucks be riding with me, he can speak for himself.

that 23 people killed were "armed" with toy weapons in 2015 is alarming to me

To the extent they are enforcing tyrannical laws they are evil. The "just following orders" excuse does not work.

I believe that what happened to Garner in New York
was wrong (the arrested man who died; he had been put in a chokehold). But I don't think it has
been put on trial yet, and I am not sure it will be.

Every month when I go to an Objectivist meet-
ing, I get stopped by a cop. I can't drive (epilepsy); so I put my bike on a bike rack on
the GRTC (Richmond city) bus, ride out to a
certain shopping center, and bike from there to
a certain restaurant (which takes maybe about
45 minutes). Afterwards, on my way back to
the shopping center, some cop always stops
me to criticize the bike light (flashlights at this
time, can't afford regular), or gives patronizing
counsel about the danger from car drivers, etc.
But I behave politely and respectfully, and even-
tually get to the bus stop.--Still, I wouldn't call
that police brutality.
I think sometimes the cops are wrong, some-
times the suspects are wrong. Cameras are
probably a very good idea.

It would appear that it makes sense that cameras while on duty improves performance and improves public perception of law enforcement.

In light of that, I propose that the Chief Law Enforcement Officer occupying the White House be required to wear a camera and that the public be able to access.

I know, I know, fat chance and there are national security issues. But look at what a missing 18 minutes of WH audio tape did.

Thanks to Mr. Halling I have been able to listen to Ayn Rand's Ford Hall Forum lectures. As a result I am of the opinion that our society culture is in a state of deterioration that is accelerating so fast that it will not be stopped to reverse anytime in the distant future. Of course all of these shooting can be put jobs by the unmentionables in the cesspool area of the country so they can continue to have a stronger voice to rid the country of the private ownership of fire arms.

Some Police depts. are out of control. My brother-in-law came home one day and found his front door was open. He went to a neighbor's house and called the SWAT team, and they came! The whole street was evacuated and barricades set up. Nothing was found in his house. Nothing! I asked him why in the world did he call SWAT instead of the regular police? He said he just wanted to "lay it safe". What bothers me the most is not my BIL calling them, but that they responded instead of passing it to the local police dept! Ridiculous waste of tax dollars!

It's disgusting what is happening today and most of it is based on some thug and criminal that is also a liar. "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" movement was just an excuse to riot and have a good time for the rest of the thugs and criminals. The movement was not just a coincidence and surely got it's start from that liars comment. Sure there are bad cops, but we can's throw them all under the bus for it. We've just got to obey or prosecute based on our laws, for both sides, period. Just because blacks murder more, blacks are not all murderers. America needs a real wake up call, something is happening that is getting totally out of control that will eventually severely hurt this country. Being divided now, about half the people are blinded and can't see it coming. Perhaps we really need a Trump in the White House, someone that will bully the place back into shape. I wonder if he will use the Secret Service or use his own security force if he's elected.