People don't like the police

You had your wife with you?

Oh please, talk about someone trying to drum up paranoia. I lived in down town Los Angeles ( i mean down downtown ...2007-2008 ) and now live in San Antonio, texas (6th sixth largest metropolis). I walk downtown and have drinks with buddies on the weekends all the time. I have no fear whatsoever, even when I have my two small kids running around on the streets .

You abide by the Law, the Cop is your asset NOT someone to be scared of. Jeeesh

Not sure what kind of World do you live in ? But being scared like you talk about is no way to live !

You're too persuaded by TV and sensationalism that the media conjures up about good cops and bad cops.

There are no more bad Cops than there are bad teachers, athletes, clergyman , sex therapists etc..
And that includes Big City Cops as well.

The fact is the majority of them are good people !

Now you are coming back down to reality

I don't really understand the point. Yes, cops do a dangerous job. Yes, they usually do a good job of it and help keep us safe. NO, that does NOT in any way, shape, or form excuse cops abusing their power. As cops, they should be held to a higher standard. But unfortunately they usually aren't even held to the same standard as they hold citizens. They get away with too much, they are able to take citizens rights away too often. And the usual punishment is for the city (ie. the taxpayers) to pay damages.

FWIW, I am not referencing the recent Ferguson or NYC cases. I'm talking about all the videos we can see daily on YouTube of cops arresting people for no other reason than they were recording them from a distance and the cops that clearly use excessive force such as kicking a suspect in the head after he is cuffed and not struggling.

I never understood the concept of not being able to understand this. Kevlar vests, for example, only cover maybe 80% of the body, and only stop SOME bullets and only to a degree. They have guns but, again, they are limited. And there are rules they are SUPPOSED to follow, so they have risks. And though I could imagine it, you hear on shows like forensic files about people actually TALKING with people that did nasty things and try to act innocent. That happened with Michael brown.

That video, in the OP, was something. The first cop made a mistake by getting involved with the coat, and kind of tangled up. He should have had the suspect do that, observe, frisk, and THEN try to cuff him, and go for the other guy, though he SHOULD have had a partner there to do that. STILL, I didn't expect both people to come at him shooting.

I always try to be as nice as possible to police though.

Steve

Know something, Joe? That line is getting pretty old. We KNOW that being a cop is a dangerous job - and it's not just danger of the gunfire variety. When a cop gets killed in a fire, it's usually because he was trying to rescue someone in it. When a cop gets drowned, the same thing - attempting rescue. In 2013, there were a few cops killed both ways while in office. Anyone whose brain is still engaged enough to be qualified to be thought of as still human knows the border region is a nightmare, not only for cops, but for our citizens. It's not the badge that makes that dangerous - it's living in the area that makes it so.

Unfortunately, trumped stats are used to make people believe that any cop that was killed in the line of duty was killed via violence against them, and unfortunately, these days, that means that people are wondering if the the cop was attacking someone or was just victim of a pointed act of violence against him.

How many swat teams are now used in raids for stupidity such as delivering a warrant? Really. Break into a house and terrorize or even kill the occupants or their pets to deliver a warrant? How often is violence being used against peaceful protesters? Remember recently that in Nevada a whole militia was launched against a family over property "taxes" - an issue they were fighting in court? People met that with like force to stop the slaughter of a family that had land the gov wanted to sell to a Chinese solar company.

Now also consider - that police, like those in many professions keep an unwritten code of loyalty between them. Doctors don't tell on each other for writing unneeded prescriptions or for doing unnecessary surgeries, cops don't tell on other cops when they know one just beat the holy snot out of someone mainly just for the power trip.

Just because a job is dangerous doesn't give the right to kill innocent people over nervousness. Exactly how is it going to improve safety for either side if someone is allowed to mow down anyone and everyone they feel might try to hurt them? One man was just judged not-guilty in court for killing a cop who had busted into his home with absolutely not one reason in the middle of the night in "raid" mode. He had been "raided", put in jail, and had to fight a legal system because a dude with a badge thought that the badge meant he could do whatever he pleased to anyone he pleased to do it to.

During the best of days a cop has a dangerous job. When the force is being filled with militia trained thugs that are taught to ignore rights and enforce laws without the "protect and serve" mindset that used to be taught, and until cops start speaking out against those in their midst that use their badge as a certification of being above the law -- the good cops, the old fashioned town cop that is there to help, is going to be in more and more danger as time goes on. When the government stops issuing laws solely for the purpose of power and oppression and using cops as guard dogs to protect their elite status -- the good guys on the force are going to be in a very, very bad way.

I've known a lot of cops, DAs, lawyers, judges personally. All but one of my encounters with cops have been nonthreatening - some even good socially. But back in NV - I had that one encounter where I was not only wrongfully accused of speeding in an area I hadn't even driven through, I was threatened with tasing just for telling him he had the wrong car. It only took me once to realize what a danger the mix of a badge and a bad attitude presents.