Despite the name, a persecutor's job is not to prosecute. It is to seek justice, if a case is wrong or sufficiently weak his job is to not prosecute.

Violating department policy is not against the law. It gets you fired, not put on trial.

Complaints filed against an officer do matter, it actually affects their careers. Its a certainty that some complaints are bogus but if one cop is getting a lot of them the department becomes suspicious. Many do look for bad cops, why? Because bad cops eventually get caught on tape and cost the city/county tens of millions in lawsuits. Many departments will get rid of bad cops because it costs them money.

Cameras are great. They keep the bad guy on both sides of the camera honest.

And as for volunteering to do my part, been there done that, seen things from the inside.

The FBI stat was for officers shot in the line of duty, so suicide would not count. Regard another police officer, the other officer has his own gun so one cop accidentally shooting another would not count.

Not really. That has more to do with the SWAT teams using low risk warrant situations as ad-hoc training exercises for high risk warrant situations. You gotta practice with all that gear and those tactics.

The real problem is the militarization of police. Does every friggin department need a SWAT team? No. A large enough city or a county SWAT team, sure. SWAT teams get used because they exist, not necessarily because anyone is afraid.

No, you have rights not liberties. Both good things but different sorts things.

Skin tissue from his hand where the bullet grazed him is found in the car. His blood is on the gun, inside the car and on the cop's uniform in a manner consistent with the cop being seated in his car.

That is not an escalation. Yelling at the cop and walking toward him to get in his face would be an escalation.

A cop talking like an a-hole is not breaking the law. Perhaps it is breaking department policy. File a report. Yell and get in his face and you are a fool giving the rare bad cop the excuse he needs. You let him goad you into crossing the line. Getting played like that doesn't defend your honor, it just makes you look the fool, a sucker.

Its not about what they are doing being OK. Its about what you are doing being stupid and counterproductive. A bully on the playground you punch. A bully in uniform on the street, you fight with the law not a punch.

The problem is some people have a strange definition of excessive force. There was just another shooting near Ferguson. An 18 year old pointed a 9mm pistol at a cop and was shot. Protesters are at the police station claiming he should have been tasered or maced.

When being arrested you are no longer at liberty, that is sort of the inherent definition of being under arrest.

Acting professionally, yes, that is required.

If you want to talk about the militarization of the police, civil forfeitures, etc I'm with you. However the fact remains that the police do a dangerous job even when done right and that violence against police, again 10% of those shot are shot with their own gun, is the primary thing behind the police resorting to deadly force so quickly. Getting into a wrestling match or fist fight may be a minor thing to you and I but it is *not* so to a cop. While there are a few "thugs in blue", most of the shootings are "self defense by blue".

"At 11:53 a.m., a dispatcher reported a "stealing in progress" at the Ferguson Market and a brief description of the suspect, who was believed to have taken a packet of cigars. Officers were told to look for a black male wearing a white T-shirt, running toward the QuikTrip convenience store. Additional information was soon added: the man was wearing a red Cardinals hat, khaki shorts and yellow socks; a second man was with him. At noon, Wilson asked the officers searching for the robbery suspects if they needed assistance. An officer responded that the men had disappeared. Two minutes later, at 12:02 p.m. Wilson radioed in, "Put me on Canfield with two. And send me another car," a request for additional officers. Sources have told the newspaper that prior to making that call, Wilson claimed he told Brown and his friend Dorian Johnson to stop walking in the street. Wilson said it was after that that he recognized that Brown matched the robbery suspect's description, called for backup and stopped his SUV next to the two men."
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fe...

The exception is a video, not the cop(s) in the video. The video is anecdotal, not statistical.

Except for the fact that the bullet fired in the car tore off some skin tissue and left it in the car.

There is nothing brave about a criminal fighting a cop, its just an example of stupidity. They rarely get away with it, maybe they delay the arrest at the price of more charges and longer incarceration. Smart criminals comply, thereby avoiding injury and getting out of jail sooner.

Not really. The exception I referred in both my posts was a video showing bad behavior by police. A video is what we call anecdotal, not statistical. The number of police is a single video is irrelevant.

You have an odd definition in "context". When a spiked mat is layed out they are generally dealing with a fleeing suspect who is endangering civilians in some manner, i.e. high speed chase. Getting dragged out of the car, forcibly put on the ground and handcuffed is a pretty reasonable response. Also the odds are fair in such incidents that the suspect was armed when things started. That said, there is no excuse for beating a suspect.

Actually in that department in California where the long term test has been going on the officers like the cameras.

Actually by doing so the citizen is escalating the situation too. As the Mayor of NY told is son, just shut up and comply and things can get sorted out at the police station. Ie file a report against the officer. Escalating things at the scene is a dumb thing to do.