Correct me if I am wrong, but they also take an oath to uphold the Constitution?
I'm getting into this a bit late, so this comment has probably been picked apart already. But I just gotta have my shot at it.
Cops, like nearly all public servants and politicians take an oath to "preserve and protect the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." Like nearly all the others who take that oath, they quickly forget it and what it means. They shouldn't.
No police officer should get a free pass for an illegal act by claiming that he was ordered to do it or that he was just following the law. Those were the exact reasons given by Nazis for killing unarmed women and children. If those arguments weren't allowed in 1947 why are they ok now? If some poor schlep of a German soldier was expected to compare official law with humanitarian ethics, why can't we expect the same from a police officer who, like as not, has at least a two-year degree from college?
I agree that police officers have a tough job, one that I wouldn't want to do (again), but unless they are mindless robots, incapable of discerning good or bad intentions, only whether or not the "LAW" has been broken, they need to be held accountable for their actions.
One thing I have always held to be true is that eventually, all governments fall. Ours will too. I have read a rather lengthy treatis about how the next revolution will go and the first casualties the government will suffer will be from the ranks of the local police forces. After all, they are the most visible symbols of power that the people have for venting their anger. The next group to be targeted will be the families of the police officers. Is that fair? No, but then, neither is life.
There will come a time, hopefully long after I'm no longer around to see it, when good police officers-- and there are many of them-- will have to make a choice between right and wrong, between Rights and laws, between life and death, not only theirs but their families as well. Until that unhappy time arrives, we can sit at our faceless keyboards, calling each other names and adding nothing to the fray except more blather. Too many of us are already adept at that.
Does "we don't have any obligation to protect you"
And "You are not entitled to own a gun to protect yourself" ring any bells?
That must explain why I see them blowing by me on the Interstate at 90 mph, while the rest of us are driving close to the speed limit. That must also explain why regularly see off-duty cops leaving the local pub -- behind the wheel of a motor vehicle -- with a BAL well in access of the legal limit. What's that old saying -- "Cops smoke the best dope." Obviously, they do have a lot of choices which are not available to the rest of us.