To protect and to serve

To protect and to serve

by digby

… or shoot rubber bullets into crowds of women and children:

I thought this was interesting:

Four people told Jackson that police offered to buy their cell phone video.

Of course they did. And that’s because something went very wrong here and they know it. If the cops can’t keep their cool enough to figure out how to calm a situation like this without shooting rubber bullets into crowds of kids and sending in attack dogs to bit mothers with babies in their arms then they need to get into another line of work.

This is yet another example of the militarization of the police. Many of them don’t see themselves as public servants anymore. They see themselves as soldiers in a war — against the citizens. Just looking at that footage of police in uniform with those weapons aimed at that crowd makes my blood run cold.

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