High quality comments. From both sides.

 Smokestack,

I imagine the stories about cops harming people will stop when cops stop harming people.  It's not a philisophical puzzle.

I also owe my life to brave people, and there is a considerable lack a good news about police today... I suspect it's because the deep level of betrayal we feel when cops go bad. 

In Iran (where people think like you) it is common place for jack booted thugs to be judge, jury, and executioner... and few people care. 

In America, Due Process is mandatory before punishment can be dished out. 

My family has a number of police, and they attribute this abuse of power to a few factors:

1.  Lack of training

2. Peer Pressure

3. Twisted ego

We note that "in January, Olvera was acquitted of all charges". However, was Olvera free from harm? How much did he spend in legal costs and attorney's fees? How much time was he forced to miss work or running his business? How about the loss of standing Olvera might have suffered in his community and how might this publicity effect his future?

What about the abuse of Olvera's privacy, his right to be secure in his home and in his papers and effects? What about a wrongful arrest? What about the usurpation of Olvera's rights as a home-owner in his own home? 

The courts and cops hold themselves blameless. To them, this is all "incidental". Well that's all fine and good but they are out there ruining people's lives.

Sorry Ross but justice cries out for REMEDIATION of this intollerable situation. Plattitudes such as "nice man with badge once saved my life" does little to erase the pervasive catalog of abuses that are being documented in real time.

The fact is that most people don't trust cops anymore, don't even like them. Because of what they see with their own eyes. It's common knowlege now that cops do lie, are encouraged to lie to gain convictions and their word, as a result of this, is mud. Like most government officials.

I've worked with cops for years. In the field, on crime scenes and up against very scary people. Do I trust them? HELLS NO.

I believe that the full translation of what the officer allegedly said is "Don't be f**king with me you faggot!"  I do have some sympathy for police officers (just not Quartzsite Police Chief Jeff Gilbert and some of his officers) because they are charged with the lousy  task of enforcing the law as it is written, and not as it should have been written. That being said, it is incomprehensible that officers do not receive better training, and that department heads do not hold their officers accountable for blatant misconduct that opens up the body politic to litigation.

Smokestack: You make a good point. While some of us are ready to praise good cops, except for a few such as Ridley, we don't have too many front-page stories about them.

However, we have people like Sheriff Jack McLamb and the Oath Keepers who regularly receive our praise.  Sheriff Babeu was close to being an idol but he's blowing it with the orthodox libertarians.

On the whole, I'd answer the question thus: this site is about defending FREEDOM AND LIBERTY. It's kind of a scourge. We see clearly the increase in paramilitarized police forces, the escalation of violence against certain segments of society (while leaving white collar crime largely untouched) and the ZERO accountability of public officials.

Youtube is the new battle front and the camera is the new gun. It's easy to dismiss oral or text reports of police abuse but now the nation gets to SEE it in action. And suddenly people don't "see" in their minds some riff-raff getting what they deserve, they see their relatives and children and maybe even themelves getting the same treatment.

Now for every time an officer acts under colour of law, and their IAD finds, after the usual "full and exhastive internal review" that "the officer acted consitently with departmental guidelines", a few thousand, tens of thousands or millions of Americans get to make up their own mind about what they see.

And the two stories aren't matching up.

Bottom line for me: a brave PERSON saved your life. I've saved lives before, not just a few, and I don't get to break the law, I don't get to abuse people with impunity and nobody is comming running to cover my ass if I act criminally.

And I have worn both a badge and a gun in my time. I've never been the employee of any government agency but I might know more than the layman about what it's like.

Ok so all bogus charges were dropped. What happened to the nazie? Is it still business as usual. When these bastards harm people out of their authority I guess it's ok.

OUT OF CONTROL. These friggin hired gun totin thugs who don't even know the first article of the constitution continue to plunder the people sanctioned by the dens of corruption called courts that are run by these black robed devils under the color of law and disguised in respectability. Your honor? What honor do any of these predator thugs have anyway? I would like to know.

 I have never encountered a web site with so many anti police reporters. What is it with you guys? Too many points on your operator licence? Find your wife/girlfriend in bed with a cop?

Have you ever searched for and reported a positive story on police?. Granted, there are rogue cops and out of control news people. Where are your stories on the dishonest reporters? I suspect you go after police because the nature of their job causes some to make a bad decision, but until you walk in their shoes you have no idea why those decisions were made. I also suspect you are too lazy to go after real news and cops are an easy target.

Before you accuse me of being a cop, I'm not,but I wouldn't be here today if not for a very brave and determined cop 30 years ago.

I think the cops family should be made aware of what their son,daughter,or,what ever is doing to make the future of his own children a horrible future,and every other child in America will suffer at the hands of cops like this one....I don`t think such cops are even real people.I bet you can`t find his Mother anywhere.Maybe Roswell,or,hanger 51

And the judge will say that the cop was just doing his job,and give him a few day`s off with pay.