[Off-topic] got556:
And it's okay if you did belittle him. The dude was a piece of crap through and through. It was just the excuse LA needed so the animals could come out and riot, rape, pillage, and murder. You're very right about public perception. The media in all its glory never lets a crisis go to waste. Most police "brutality" videos never show the whole scene/situation from stop to finish. I also wager to say that police brutality occurs at a much smaller rate than what the public "perceives" to take place. Not to mention look at the statistics of how many law enforcement officers exist in the U.S. then compare that to the actual, honest to goodness, police brutality incidents and I bet it's less than 0.5%.

Are there piece of **** cops out there? Yes. But I don't see anyone firing politicians these days for royally ****ing up your life. I don't see any media people losing their job for blatantly swaying public perception and falsifying the news and often times just short of inciting riots.

But hey I'm just a little guy in the DOJ who calls it like he sees it and may have wrote a few thesis papers on police corruption and brutality.

I have no problem with being filmed while on the job. My problem is where you take a snippet of an escalated situation to portray me as going beyond my duties as a law enforcement officer and painting me as a bad guy. More so, law enforcement deals with the worst of the worst on a daily basis. We try to do our jobs to the extent that the law allows while also trying to keep the public happy. We are not here to serve you. (IMHO), nor protect you. Exercise your 2nd amendment right for that. We are here to separate the good from evil before you have to.

Each day I'm tasked with waiting for someone to push my adrenaline on overload, knowing today, could be the day, I go meet my maker. I also have to remember that I represent the agency I work for, and public eyes are always watching. I also remember that no matter how much an individual tries to do harm to me verbally or physically I must act in a manner accordingly to how I've been trained and know when to never go above the needed use of force.

While you may sit there and belittle me, I have to push that aside when you call me to come help, assist, save you from whatever danger came your way. In return I ask that you, from one human being to another, always remember that I too make mistakes. That at any point in time I could be sued, my family could be in danger, or any of us could be killed, all because I had a SPLIT SECOND to make a decision on how to react to a highly stressful and downright pants ****ting situation, because you, John Q Public, along with the law said I must follow my duties of removing bad guy A from the streets.

So I ask you, the next time you see a "police brutality" video streaming all over the web or media, please be sure you have all the facts before you cast your first stone. Put yourself in that officer's shoes from start to finish.

Also you as a citizen, it is you duty to know your rights, as a citizen. Use them if you find an over-zealous "authoritative" figure encroaching them. Be polite, be courteous, and be right. You ask the same of us.

So here's some facts. Law enforcement officers have the highest divorce rates out of any profession in the nation. We also have the highest suicide rates. The average life expectancy of a law enforcement officer is 57 years of age. Coincidentally that is also the maximum age allowed before mandatory retirement in the DOJ. Now ask yourself.....what do these tidbits tell you?

ETA: And some tidbits about me. I think the war on drugs is a waste of time and money. I think Fast & Furious goes all the way to the top of the administration and they should all be in prison. I'm neither democrat nor republican. I do not support socialism. I fully support the 2nd amendment and believe every citizen has a natural born right to carry a weapon. I do not think all prison inmates are guilty. I do think Washington DC needs a reset button. I support the military and the war on terror. I do think Iraq was somewhat of a mistake. I do think the current police state has gone too militarized and should be tamed. I like to think we as a nation can do anything we want, but realize that more and more this becomes a nation of sheep or people that don't concern themselves with the things they should. I think reality TV has ruined 51% of the current population.

And as much as I love technology and Android, I think smartphones have set people's social skills back decades, if not centuries.