There is without a doubt an increase in protests and civil activism, both on the Left and on the Right. However, we are also seeing an attempt by the corporate media to exploit events and the protesters, and on occassion, to try and manufacture events. The corporate media has been very careful not to cover protests and other events which would reflect negatively on its agenda. Accordingly, protestors and organziers must make better use of social media outlets to make sure their message gets out so that more people become aware of what's actually going on and not what the corporate media wants us to believe is going on, if anything.

Tom I love you, but the miltiarization of the police goes much farther back than 911. And I mean much farther back, like you can tenously place it anywhere between WATS and war on drugs. Experts on this will qubble as to exactly where it started. Suffice it to say, Daryl Gates truly is the gift that keeps on giving.

Regardless, the legal background for a lot of this goes also much father back than 911, like to the early years of the Warren court.

911 is the day that many people finally noticed, but seriously, I would expect you to know that this goes much father back.

Can it be reversed? Yes, and I think we are starting to see signs that peopel both within and outside law enforcement realize change is needed. There will be a lot of resistance too, but the kinds of changes needed will be rather scary. The first step is truly learning how miltitarized the police has become, and it is not just the MRAPs, though the local one meant for a school district, was returend after we broke how miltiarized the local police was.

http://reportingsandiego.com/2014/08/27/how-militarized-are-san-diego-po...

We could not find where the MRAP went to, local public station did, and they were forced to give it back.

Nadin

editor reportingsandiego.com

I long for days when policemen were professional, like Sargeant Friday and his various partners. The would get a report of something or other, get to scene of the crime and investigate, ask questions, check out what happened "The facts ma'am, just the facts", after a half an hour of good police work, the thief, or the murderer, or whatever was supposed to have occurred, was solved.

Today, in order to take down one criminal it requires a truckful of "men in black", their faces covered over with ski masks running about the scene like... (the name of those things that they look like escapes me). It's not clear what sort of crimes will be treated this way in the wake of the legalization of pot--nobody to raid. If the accounts I see in the social media, the search for the "250" by the NYPD on the streets of that city as resulted in more violations of human rights that the prevention of crime, or promoting the "rule of law". The demonstators of the Occupy Movement know all too well how, when they wanted to speak freely, they were bullied by NY's finest into submitting to their authorities, some of them were even placed in jail, for "resisting arrest".

If that weren't enough the social media has revealed how plain ordinary citizens that live along state borders in the Southwest, discover a officer of the border patrol stopping to ask them all sorts of "questions", and if the answer is "there is a sale on household appliances in the mall across the state line" is not enough. They are required to stop and be investigated for something or other. For the record, many places of business along the state borders, and up close to them have experienced downtown in their business activity,the result of road blocks. People are not driving along those roads from fear of being "stopped and frisked".

There is something very wrong with the United States of America. Heck, in Tel Aviv, two summers ago, people that were dissatified with the lack of affordable housing took to the parks, and "camped out". Some of them were removed, but only after quite a while--the mayor didn't "send the cops" to remove them. In fact across from the Central Railroad Station, the people that camped out two years ago, are still there, and likely there are other places in Tel Aviv, where people continue to "camp out". No police, no violence, in the "troublesome Middle East", while people in the Big Apple risk being greeted by policemen, being told to "get out their cars", or "on their knees", for not showing them the respect they deserve, or something like that.

Yeah I wonder what Jack Webb, or his alter ego Sargeant Friday would say if they were brought down from Heaven, reincarnated as policemen. Would they understand all the loss of life and limb that goes on today? I think not.

No, people shouldn't stop protesting because of the two cops having been shot. However, they should be aware of this and show a little sensitivty towards the police. They are obviously---and rightly so---going to be on edge.

I agree with Ms. Necker in that neither police officer was white. Perhaps given the light and angle at which the shooter saw the two officers, they appeared white to him. Then again, he not have cared and just wanted to murder a couple of cops. Who knows what path logic takes through a twisted mind?

I have enjoyed reading most of what Thom Hartmann has proposed and elaborated upon in the past even though I have disagreed with some of it but this is a poorly directed and shallow document. Thom and most responders who have agreed with this premise have failed to recognize the complexity of the issue.

Yes, police officers can be heavy handed and their should be public input into the regulation of their behavior and practice. However, there has been no mention of the difficulties faced by police officers nor an exploration of the differences between big city officers and small town officers. There has been no recognition of the heroism that officers display every day for the public.

They do a job that none of the responders (nor Thom) have have chosen to do. At least, none have stated it as their profession. Therefore, none have any idea what it is like to be charged with enforcing law that the public has chosen to legislate through the electoral process. Worse, none of the responders sound as thought they have experience with street combat, which is what officers face every day. Most people turn their backs and run (wisely) in the face of aggression. Police officers do not have that luxury. Furthermore, none appear to have any experience with combat (armed or unarmed) and the celerity with which it occurs nor with the speed with which a blow to the head can change your life.

I state this because it is obvious that Thom and his supporters are sitting upon some very high horses. You are failing to recognize the changes that come to one's mind and body when facing these situations. There is no way to avoid these changes and the only way to adapt to them is to require counseling for the officers and ongoing training. Granted, this is a tough thing to require in their culture but, require it non the less.

But, back to the idea of heroism. I have personally seen police officers reach into burning cars to pull out children still strapped into car seats after a crash. I have seen them come out of burning buildings before we firefighters run in with all our fire gear. I have seen them beaten up and bloodied after fighhting and subduing a drug induced psychotic black man who was threatening the public (they did not shoot him).

They have a different mentality than most of the general population and they live by a VERY different code than the vast majority of us. Do we need to continue with the efforts to deepen civilian control over the putative emergence of a police state? YES.

But to naively state that police should not be seen as heros is shallow and, quite honestly, weak.

They do a job that Thom has opted NOT to do. More importantly, we all benefit from the fulfillment of their duties and we need to show them respect and appreciation for that daily. After my time in the Peace Corps I can say with confidence that, without their efforts and blood, our country would be no better than any other third world country with its concomittant chaos and corruption. If you really want to fight against oppression then fight agains corporate control of government because THAT is the most corrosive agent of democracy. That is the coming oppressor of your freedoms.

To say "why is no one protesting the cop murders?" is racist and stupid. Who would be the target of the protest? The killer? He's dead. If there had been vidio and then he had been caught and then not charged by a grand jury, that would be a reason for a protest. Then the protesters would likely be made up of cops and mostly white citizens. That would never happen because the cops likely would have murdered the shooter so he could not go to trial and plead insanity even if he tried to surrender. The cops would have their stories (lies) together. The protesters are not to blame. The media is not to blame. Let's put blame where where it belongs. First the lone shooter is to blame. Second is our supreme court who interprets the second amendment, that was designed to protect our country from a foreign invasion with the help of a citizen army, by saying that it says that everyone can carry guns, nevermind the part about a "WELL REGULATED MALITA". Has it occured to anyone in our government that this amendment is obsolete and should be changed because now we spend billions of dollars every year on a standing military to protect us and now there's no chance a private citizen is going to be called upon to protect this country with his HUNTING RIFEL? Third is our system of how we police the police, When a police officer stands accused of violating a citizens rights, HIS FRIENDS, the prossicutor and fellow officers most often will make sure the officer will not be charged with any crime, no matter what the officer has done or who the officer has murdered unless it's another cop. Cops harrass and illeagaly search people every day, not all cops, not all police forces, but in some places it's routine, usually where there are a lot of black targets to choose from. This has to stop. Cops trying to find reasons to arrest people for the sake of getting a big number of arrests on their record has to stop too. Most cops are very good people but in some police forces they need to do a better job of acting like their job is to protect everyone, even the people they must arrest. The fourth reason the two cops were murdered is OUTRAGE caused by a rash of vidios of cops shooting and killing people when they didn't have to.

POLICE used to take oaths to "Protect and Serve the masses." Now it has become "Enforce the Law and save yourself when you have an inkling that you might be in danger." Black people and people with darker skin are more likely to be mistaken as someone likely to be carrying a weapon, but sadly most are not held responsible for being afraid for their lives. We seem to be training a bunch of wussies, instead of training Law Officers to stay strong, wear their vests, and not shoot people you only suspect of having a weapon. A lot more of us will die because of fear from those who are supposed to be well-trained. America is going nuts. Where on earth are the brave officers who take more than 3 seconds to make a wise decision?!

It is a sad day when I agree with Mike Barnacle and Rudy Guiliani and disagree with Thom. My mother and father were police officers so I take it personally when police officers are killed. I will always support the police.

Who's to say it wasn't yet another agent provocateur attack. Also if the elite really wanted gun control, they would simply stop manufacturing the weapons

Mr. Barnicle's article is one more example of the asinine false equivalency being propagated by the Right, and also one more attempt to make a partisan black/white liberal/conservative issue out of this, when police brutality should be everyone's concern. By all accounts this shooter was mentally unstable and acted alone. The suggestion that people should organize a protest against the actions of this killer is simply ludicrous. What would that accomplish? How many violent acts are committed every day by people with mental problems? Mr. Barnicle is really attempting to link the shooting to the protests against police brutality when there is none.

Police are not the only people who can kill somebody when they make a 'bad mistake.' The same can be said for doctors. That is why governments issues licenses and hold the profession of medical doctors to certain standards. If some demographics start dying at bizarrely high rates while under a doctor's care then it is realistic to expect an investigation. Police, as professionals, must also be held to standards, although the guidelines are usually inconsistent, in fact it is usually up to the community and not the state to issue guidelines for behavior and training. The people have a right to expect that their police forces, being a so-called professional organization, should be held to some sort of standards. This is a responsibility that any police officer should assume when he or she puts on the badge. Any profession must shoulder expectations from the public for it's behavior and skill. We have expectations of the police that we do not have of the average 'civilian' and for good reason. When an organization fails those expectations we the public have a right to ask why.

One distinction that gets lost is that the protests were about the lack of an arrest and trial for the killers of the young black men. You can bet that if the killer of the policemen had not taken his own life, he would have been immediately arrested, tried for murder and executed.

All killings are tragic. The justice system handles kilings of policemen, but not killings by policemen. That's why there are protests about one kind of killing and not the other.

Unfortunately, many police agency's have developed a "Shoot first and don"t answer questions later" attitude; and that's fueling the hatred toward cops, which, in turn, is further increasing the "shoot first..." attitude.

All police agency's need to have a civillian oversite committee, and all members of that committee would have term limits and be elected, NOT APPOINTED. It's the only way we're going to return sanity and civility to the law enforcement profession.