re: #158 wlewisiii

Not sure I can make that blanket statement, DF. I have been a cop (MP) and I’ve known a damn large number of good cops and a much smaller number of bad cops. But the damage done by that smaller number is so out of proportion to that small number that I am left wondering about the true story every time I read of the possibility of the abuse of power under cover of authority. It’s a terribly easy vice to fall into. While training National Guard MP’s for service in the Balkans I saw things than made me instantly believe the worst possible interpretations of Abu Ghraib. Take it as you will.

I hear you, but this doesn’t look like that to me. This person took a swing at a cop, and that does merit arrest. There was no “police riot” here. The cops used pepper spray because it incapacitates a part of a crowd without actually inflicting serious injury, as police batons are capable of doing.