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Sorry. Doesn't wash. I've seen many incidents when cops, oft times trying to take care of calls/reports made by residents, are attacked just because they are cops. In some areas, cop hating is a community sport. Most intercity areas have hosts of activists primed to go after cops in court and city hall. Jumping a cop, beating him and trying to take his gun is kinda draconian,..even if he is a "jerk". I've had a couple of similar incidents happen to me when making an arrest. I was lucky. Plus, my "situational awareness" in police work always seemed to benefit from my combat background. Like the man said: "Everybody hates cops,..if you want to be loved, be a fireman."

Agreed.

When I was a patrolman back in the late 70’s, I pulled over a guy for several traffic violations. I approached the vehicle and he exited his (we were in an apartment parking lot, about 6:30 in the am). Just as I got close and started the drill, WHAM a fist came flying out of nowhere. I was, at that time, recently out of university, a 5’ 7” gymnast (Rings specialty) and was fairly muscular. The bad guy was 6’ 3” and 250 lbs. Hurt like hell.

The hit knocked me over the back of his car and the fight was on. We scrapped and rolled and I kept rolling over onto my gun because he was constantly trying to get the gun. A crowd gathered during the fight and cheered on the bad guy. I recall clearly to this day “Get his gun, shoot him!” being said over and over and over.

Finally I prevailed (nothing fights like a scared man). Hurting, out of breath and totally spent.

(Side comment: I wish I was some 120lb Reebok-wearing kick-boxing girl. . .then things would have turned out differently. . .I mean, come on. . .on TV the 120lb Reebok-wearing kick-boxing girl quickly knocks the doo outta big bad guys all the time. Anyway. . .I digress.)

As I was on top of his prone body, the crowd began to approach us and made comments about “save the brother.” It was at this time I was in enough control that I drew my weapon and pointed it at the crowd. I was fully prepared to shoot anyone that came close. Period. No question. I was going to kill anyone that tried to approach, and told the crowd that. Crowd eventually backed off.

This was one simple traffic stop turned bad. Who knew the guy was recently out of prison, on parole. He had murdered a neighbor in an argument over a stereo. He had been ticketed several times since his recent release and thought the police were hassling him.

Thing is, I didn’t know him, he didn’t know me, the crowd didn’t know me either. All they saw was Blue and that was enough to encourage hate and murder.

Thing is, times two, if that had happened today, someone on FR would make wild conjectures as to the crowd thinking I was a jerk or somehow deserved being attacked, or making some excuse to mitigate the guilt of the bad guy. Moreover, if I had shot somebody in the crowd, some on FR would be harping for my hide because I was some rogue cop that abuses authority and looks for reasons to shoot some poor unarmed sap.

Just me talking.