Some cops get scared too and lose it. I dont know what happened in St. Louis, but I have spoken to a cop in South Chicago, years ago and he said he was scared every day he went to work and needed to get a different job. The guy was real big and afro American. He didn't look like he would scare easily. He said they have trouble getting and keeping police officers in that area and so he took the job becuase the pay was good and the needed a good job. I wonder if a guy like that was confronted with a riot and the rioters were showing no fear, or aggression, how he would react.
Of course they get scared ,if they don't they are probably contributors to the problem,your example guy if he's scared from the first minute of the day does need something ,a different outlook or another job.
I owned a business half a block from ground zero for late night boozers in the worst part of town to congregate and continue any ill feelings coming from the bars,it was bad enough that the city council asked him to close during what was the independent operator's most lucrative shift,he fed cops for free all the time and he and I were friends so I spent a lot of time around his place and FWIW I saw IT ALL,talked to all the cops who came in,the local NAACP rep. spent a great deal of his time instructing people to allege charges for harassment and or abuse of power regardless what the truth was,to do it every time the police interceded, so the police here are instructed to stand down with force until the last moment and that means surrounded by hostiles to where if they want to rush you, you are going down. And it doesn't matter if it's a white cop or a black one,if he's black he's seen to be on the side of the hated whites so they get called Toms and house N's,the people they deal with hate period
That whole spiel in no way justifies a murder,it goes to your point they are scared and damned well should be they are tasked with doing a job and are expected to be super human automatons ,I wouldn't last in the job,and those that do can only stay objective through Herculean effort .
We have a terrible race problem in this country,and I am a loss to know how to solve it,the only people who can are looting and listening to people like Sharpton encourage it,I think if I saw Sharpton preaching " no justice no peace " I'd be hard pressed not to take him in for inciting to riot,that BTW is a quote from the past week, Again though when you look beyond the surface you know he's proposing a "solution" to a problem that isn't imaginary,it's real and at this moment I think the best anyone can do is try not to be a part of the problem themselves and pray for the future to be better,it's sad,downright depressing.
When I was a kid I looked up to the Chief of police and the sheriff,all the police for that matter,I'm glad I did ,I can't imagine what it would be like to hate the very people who were tasked with my security,it must be a desperate ugly feeling.
