My post regarding how law enforcement conducts operations generated some excellent points and comments over at WordsTwice and I felt that I should expand on some of my points:

I said:

The rank and file officers are 'following orders' - and generally not in a Nazi sort of sense.

Everyone will try to optimize within their operational parameters. From an operational perspective you will do everything within the rules to succeed. The police are not evil because of no-knock raids, they just should be allowed to use them as they do.

We prohibit the police from using torture or abuse for the purposes of questioning- allowing guilty people who were questioned inappropriately to walk on a 'technicality.' As a result the police don't tend to torture people because it is not a successful tactic.

If I am allowed to shoot your dog and kick in your door why would I bother with building a case in other ways? What military operator would choose to send troops door to door if they could simply carpet bomb?

I said:

Most police officers do exercise good judgment most of the time about what is "illegal" and what is actually "crime."

I have known any number of cops that I would be ecstatic to have them patrolling my neighborhood. I could count on them to treat the criminals like criminals even if they couldn't prove it. We want the police to harass, interdict, arrest and even kill criminals - the problem is that our system of innocent until proven guilty makes who is actually a criminal pretty subjective.

I said:

So I do not see this as a police vs. populace issue as much as I see it as a government vs. populace issue.

The police implement law (and policy) in accordance with the whims of government. I do believe that the vast majority of cops are good folks, but their are those that abuse their position. There are those that blindly follow the orders from above and do not exercise the discretion that they are entrusted with.

I said:

The only thing worse than bad laws are bad policies. Policies begin to carry the force of law with none of the scrutiny.

Policy doesn't have to pass legal muster until challenged. "May Issue" states can have a policy of "Won't Issue" and that is nothing more than a government functionary who has decided that they are going to exercise their power rather than apply discretion as the law requires. Regardless of the law, policies can be put into place to make following the law prohibitive, inconvenient, or practically impossible.

WT said:

Probably the most critical factor in questioning the use of force by police is that many citizens have completely wrong ideas about what is and what is not justifiable use of force, and the nuances of the various tactics and equipment involved, since their ideas about this are largely shaped by television and movie fiction. This is another issue that goes back to ideas on the roles of government and citizens. These misconceptions and outright ignorance explains why some people are puzzled and angry that police don’t “just shoot bad guys in the leg”, why people claim that their arrest was illegal because they were never given a Miranda warning, why people think the police are obligated to protect them, why a lot of people seem to think that TASER is a great self defense weapon, and so forth.

This is the absolute truth. Rather than address more of this here and simply agree with anc echo WT on the issues please read his post on the subject. (WordsTwice)

In closing regarding the "special status" afforded to government or law enforcement let me add an additional comment. I have been involved in law enforcement training for a number of years and loathe to hear a police officer talk about "civilians." My response has been that if you are not covered by the UCMJ then you are a civilian. If you are part of an armed and uniformed force then you are part of a paramilitary organization. When the police speak of "Us & Them" they believe that themselves, the government, and the military are all "us"- when in fact the police in the eyes of the military are most definitely "them."

Being part of the civilian population is in no way a lesser or bad thing. The problem is that the police would rather arrest criminals than help citizens. It is a subtle distinction.