Anyone there every thought of running for office?

Man I love it when cops freak out, because the whole thing turns your typical red vs blue ideology on its head and devolves into every flavor of nonsense. Cops are bad because unions protect them! Militarized cops everywhere, who don't have to obey military legal standards! Guns are bad and only for trained professionals like cops! Cops followed procedure by yelling "he is coming right for us" before shooting. Cop gets administrative leave. Cop was just following orders

@4

Your right to not get shot by the police is not automatically forfeit every time you break a law.

Let's face it. Black is a crime to some police. I expect even more so in Missouri.

@4: first of all it's Eric Garner. Get your blacks-killed-by-cops straight. Second, he was a "huge asshole"? To whom? The police? This is one of the major problems with urban policing around the country and which is why so many cities are going under consent decrees: taking utterly trivial offenses and escalating them beyond any sense of reason. Fuckity-fuck, who the fuck cares if Eric Garner was selling loose cigarettes on the street? Seriously? You just tell him: "okay Eric pack em up, go home". Or write him a ticket.

@4

So the police should be able to Judge Dredd suspects because they're assholes? And that's what they are, even if the cop has 100% certainty that the suspect committed the crime. The criminal justice system is more than people that eat doughnuts and have guns.

"Are Ferguson police really worried about protesters flying attack drones over the city? Or is this to prevent news choppers from recording their behavior? "

Perhaps some journalism might dig something up? Cyrus Farivar of Ars is reporting that the police said that their helicopter was fired at (but not struck) on Sunday night and they're worried a pilot might be hit.

https://twitter.com/cfarivar/status/4993…

@8: But hey, at least we know everything we need to know about Robin Williams!

You got to convince all groups that change is needed, when they took a survey of the SPD Whites and Asians both gave approval ratings in the high 60%.

The reaction on the red and blue teams seems irrational on the surface, but I'll hazard that what you are really observing is the actual breakdown on another axis: statists and non-statists, who both exist among self-identified liberals and self-identified conservatives. A statist will nearly always support the isolation of certain privileges to the state (only the state can have ownership of weapons/weaponizable things/information; the ability of police to kill indiscriminately with no measurable consequence; the inherent worth of laws as laws; the use of 'following orders' as a defense). And non-statists will usually go the complete opposite direction. My statement is more black and white here than it is nuanced, as of course many people fall in between (myself included--I am inclined against popular gun ownership, but am pro-openness and transparency in governance and anti-cop). However, with some people you'll notice the pattern falls out as I've described, regardless of their political affiliation.

I think one of the interesting tipping points at which we've arrived is the erosion of giving the LEO the benefit of the doubt when the police version of events conflicts with the arrested's version. Time was, we took the officer's word every time; now, as video evidence shows so often, what the police claim to have happened isn't quite accurate, or is even a complete fabrication. In the Michael Brown situation - a black kid with no record suddenly decides to go all gangster on a cop? Serioulsy? - it is completely believable to the average person that the police used excessive force.

The TFR (Temporary Flight Restriction) are almost always put in place for the safety of whatever is going on there, not primarily for the safety of civilian pilots; TFRs are typically placed around presidential visits, around fire-fighting operations, and even around all major-league baseball, football, and NASCAR events. This particular TFR is presumably so that the police helicopters can maneuver without worrying about avoiding other planes. It goes until August 18, and extends from the surface to 3000 ft., well above what a drone is likely to do, and it is contained entirely within the controlled airspace for St. Louis International (including one runway) where drones and small planes are generally not allowed anyway.

I just read this fine piece by Joseph Epstein of the Wall Street Journal. It is spot on:

http://online.wsj.com/articles/joseph-ep…

He nails it. America needs another MLK. Jesse Jackson & Al Sharpton simply won't do anymore. There's no equivalent of MLK today.

Cops need to be better armed than the paranoid teabaggers.

Do cops really need guidelines to know not to kill unarmed citizens? Or are some cops doing it on purpose?

You know Mehlman, some days I think there is a decent soul living within you, but then you always go and blow it.

@17 Good fucking luck. Any modern day MLK would simply be branded (much like Jackson and Sharpton) as trouble makers unwilling to meet halfway and only interested in playing the race card.