Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

I love that. Did you make it up or quote it?

I can't make up my mind, let alone a quote. John F. Kennedy

I'm one of these guys who thinks cops can slap people around from time to time if it's called for and if they don't get caught. The thin blue line needs to operate in a wide gray area when it comes to maintaining the social order. ;)

I have a pretty strict sense of morale which means a lot to me and I'm appaled when I see people who are supposed to enforce rules who don't. To comply yourself to the rules you are supposed to enforce and uphold is something I feel one should be able to expect from any person whose job includes enforcing rules and if they can't do that, they shouldn't be allowed to have that job, whether it's on a forum, in a kinder garden or on a police force.

I think most people agree.
That's why police officers (in the states, at least) get routed when they fuck up. I'm not sure what your perception of it is, but we don't exactly get terrorized by law enforcement or anything. Every bust isn't a Rodney King. I guess it may seem that way when the only media you see of police performance is negative performance, though. I mean, I can assume that no one publishes videos or reports of police being courteous and NOT abusing their authority.

that doesn't sell newspapers or get advertising dollars for stations during their news segments.

Truth.

one of the main reasons I don't like to read the paper or watch the news.

It's all about the money and then on top of that, they don't report the full story. They report what they want you to hear/know about. You still have to go behind them and research it to find out the true ****ing story they should have reported in the first damn place.

The media frustrates me.

The unfortunate thing is that the media reports are pretty much the only gauge for people to use. I mean, no one can get the entire full story about the situation... we're only privy to what's reported, and what's reported is usually the sensationalist wow factor, which is inevitably negative.
I don't deny that law enforcement has some bad seeds who do some bad things... but I'm definitely not going to use that as a mold for my opinion of every other officer out there. And I definitely don't think that the law enforcement policies are reflected by those that take it too far. Call me crazy, but I've been living in my own country long enough to know that's just not true. It happens, yes... but it's dealt with, and is by no means the standard.