[saeranv]

Agreed. I'm also taken aback by the recordings of unprovoked hostility from the cops. To reporters, mind you. If this is how they are acting towards the media, how badly are they treating the minorities in their communities who have little to no power to fight back?

Keep in mind: the standard for justifying the use of lethal force for a cop is whether the officer had reasonable belief that he/she was protecting himself or others from serious injury at that moment. The scope is narrow - it does not take into account if the cop provoked the fight in the first place.

[ianstallings]

They're fearful, the cops. Not excusing it but this is not only the community lashing out at their lack of power, but the authority lashing out at the same. I don't want to psychoanalyze this but I think the whole thing is part of a bigger picture where authority in America is trying to maintain control of a public that is, according to almost any poll you find, is seriously disillusioned with their leadership. And they react with the deft touch of your typical large institution.

[saeranv]

I think they are fearful and it must be stressful to have to do an admittedly dangerous job under immense public scrutiny, media attention, and the disillusionment of their communities they're supposed to serve.

But Ferguson's disillusionment is not an abstract dislike of authority, it can be concretely traced back to its history. When we talk of disillusionment we need to talk about years of police abuse and mistreatment of citizens: racial profiling, trivial arrests and police brutality. And they continue to justify the community's scepticism by withholding information (the officer's name), clumsy attempts to manipulate the narrative (the unrelated story of the robbery) and attempting to shut down the media.

Not all cops are bad, but it whatever institutional policies exist to hold cops accountable is non-existent; they haven't earned the community's trust.

[TheOverSleeper]

This is another reason to standardize police forces. Allowing counties to determine whether their units have to be monitored by dash cams/personal cams is a mistake. We need a more unified police.