RHZig wrote:As a police officer in one more month I can see why citizens don't trust us like they once did.
But I am sure there is more to the story.
Well, cops are supposed to be role models. The public puts them on pedestals as fine upstanding citizens, otherwise we wouldn't feel safe giving cops the authority to enforce laws we might not even know about. When we hear about this kind of stuff, where an officer abuses their badge or otherwise makes a chain of really bad decisions, the image is tarnished and we start questioning if they really deserve the authority we give them. It's a sad commonplace. You see the same thing in our military; Abu Ghraib, Haditha, etc tarnish our mental image of Mother Green as fighting for the ideals we all uphold, and make it look more like a bunch of scared egotistical teens and twenty-somethings with automatic weapons.The truth is a little of both; we're all human, and therefore fallible. We also have imperfect knowledge. We all do our job the best we can based on what we know now. If a police officer second-guesses himself or the situation, he could end up dead. He makes a decision to act based on what he knows, and if that decision is to draw and fire, he does so without hesitation.
I guess what I'm saying is that cops have a difficult job that extends far beyond public perception, and this guy deserves the benefit of the doubt, which is what he is being given, until such time as it can be shown his actions violated the rules he has to follow as a peace officer.
