There are people who have claimed for years that the average American
policeman is corrupt. Not corrupt as in taking bribes (although there
might be those as well), but corrupt as in constantly stepping outside
the boundaries of the law, engaging in bordering-the-illegal, if not even
illegal measures, sometimes even outright police brutality, and the
officials are simply burying the cases. Someone said that when school
bullies grow up and cannot bully people legally anymore, they become
police officers, after which they can.

  I never paid any attention to that kind of talk. Sure, there have been
cases of police brutality and other cases of dubious conduct (such as
destroying evidence of police misconduct and threatening witnesses), but
I have always thought they were rare individual cases, not the norm.
I have always assumed that on average the American police force is
honest, competent and good-willing.

  The events of the occupy protests in the US have made me doubt, though.
Too many cases of police brutality triggered for no reason, stepping on
people's rights and freedom, and so on, to count. And not just by some
individual police officers, but by higher-ups. And apparently with no
consequences whatsoever for these infringers.

  It cannot just be a case of some politicians ordering the police to
rough up the protesters. An honest police chief would simply say "no".
What are the policiticians going to do? Fire them? That would be a political
suicide. (The police chief could simply go to the press and tell them the
story. The press would be all over it, and the politicians would be
crucified.) No, the police forces are doing this because they want to. They
could very well just stand by the protesters and protect their constitutional
rights, but no.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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