Are you saying there are millions on incidents that are not recorded that demonstrate cops doing their jobs to the letter of the law or that if it is not recorded the police are perceived as always right? I think both of those things are true. However, no matter how crazy their jobs are, they volunteered to uphold the law and they should be held to account when they become part of the problem. I am not a cop hater, I am a hater of law breakers. Worst among them are the ones who use their positions as cops to get away with the same things they have been hired to protect against. This cop was clearly off the rails at the pool party and he made the situation much worse. He pulled his gun on teenagers. Nobody should be defending this asshole -- especially those that are seen in a bad light because of stupid asses like him. Cops have a hard enough job that they don't need idiots wearing badges and ruining the reputation of all cops. If they deal with the few instances appropriately and push these idiots off the force there would be fewer instances in which such nonsense would be caught on cell phone cameras. Unfortunately these instances are seldom caught on camera and are usually swept under the rug and the police protect their own, thus increasing the amount of distrust people have in police in general. The cops at the pool party who told the stupid cop to stand down are the ones who did the right thing. Defending the idiot because cops have hard jobs adds to the perception problem of all cops.
First yes this cop was running around acting erratic only God knows why. Maybe he has some mental instability. No excuse for how rough he was with her either, I'm with you. Re-evaluated Yes. Fired No. I'm sure I could go to your job and see a time or too where you fucked up, correct?
Now to your bold. He volunteered to uphold the law/peace. When did this police officer ask anybody to do anything out of the ordinary when called to the disturbance (sit down, go home). He was called to a disturbance, a fight. His first task is to get everything under control to understand the situation. People not listening, following instructions, crowding and resisting are preventing him from doing his job wouldn't you say? We see a couple clips of video here and there and we all become experts no?
Teenagers make up a large majority of gangs in this country so constantly identifying the people he pointed his gun at as so does not excuse them for coming up on him while he was trying to detain the girl. Was the gun over the top, I believe so, but again I'm not a cop nor have I been in a potentially threatening situation like this.
For all this talk of increasing distrust you would think people would be more likely to listen, not less? You know like out of fear of being shot.
Let's discuss one thing here that will solve it all. If a cop doesn't ask you to do anything damaging or that hurts you or anyone else why not do it? If it helps uphold the peace why neglect to listen? Isn't this the overall big picture problem? We all see the cop has issues, but aren’t the more clear issue the lack of instructions being followed and respect being given to authority? Unless your hiding something illegal follow the simple instructions no?
Lastly, everybody talking about training this more training that. What the hell would any of us know about what training is better or not for these officers? How can any of us sit here and even say these things without having a clue of the officer or the training he's already had? We can say all we want, but that doesn't make us right.