And I agree with you 100%. Here in the States the average man and woman still possess a keen notion of what is right and what is wrong, in his and her own personal life, in the community, and in the world at large. And still at the same time in my opinion, there is a sort of warlike mentality in this country. There is a war on crime, there is a war on drugs, there is a war on illegal immigrants, there is a war on terrorism. And law enforcement agencies are given a lot of scope to deal with these issues, which are presented as national threats. And in a context like that, human rights are likely to be a casualty.
You cannot fight a revolution wearing white dinner gloves." The same can be said of fighting crime. It's tough work -- work that can only be successfully accomplished through (in certain instances) completely abandoning current standards of ethics. I however, in no way am suggesting that unwarranted police brutality committed on innocent civilians is morally or that it is even socially accepted here in the states by its citizens or accepted by law enforcement agencies and its officers. But I do know that we live in a real world, where everything is not always "Peaches and Cream" or handled and maintained with the same values we as individuals might perceive the way things should be. Even though, (we would all prefer a perfect world).

Like abandoning the Bill of Rights?

I don't usually post or reply to subjective threads such as this one simply because of "quote mining" by others in order to distort its original meaning. I do not wish to get involved in a "straw man" argument. :)

I just don't understand what standard of ethics we should COMPLETELY abandon (in certain circumstances). The Bill of Rights are the simplest and seemingly easiest to abandon.

When an individual is in harms way under extreme circumstances such as a life and death situation, personal or religious ethic's (for example) go right out the window.

110524-02 Special Forces Soldier awarded for putting self in harm's way to assist local police officer

Here's my two cents:

The police have a hard job. At every turn, they have no idea if they're walking into a candy factory or a shoot-out, so they're always on edge. Does that give them the right to abuse citizens? No. But they're only human. They take upon themselves the duty of protecting the public. The law sees everyone as equals, but the police do not. They do their best to protect what is in the best interest of the majority of the popution. Let them do their job and stay the f*ck out of their way. This is in an ideal situation.

Life is not ideal.

In real life, cops are racist bastards. They abuse their power all the time. They look out for themselves and give the finger to the public. I'm thankful that my state allows me to retain firearms. The law isn't always black and white (no racial puns intended). Not everyone agrees with every law, and we are not required to obey laws that are unconstitutional. The police don't make the rules, they just enforce them.

It's sort of like they're a$$holes by design. Do you really want your protectors to be a bunch of limp wrist p*ssies? I would rather have a mean dog on a short leash than a nice dog on a long leash. Either way, we have the right to arm ourselves.

And then go to jail when we use those arms.

even in Texas?

What happened to that place?

As long as they came on your property you were able to shoot their ass in self defense and no one would care.

Nope. Some guy around here got in big trouble recently for shooting a home intruder in the ass as he was fleeing out the window. There's this idea that Texas is some kind of frontier but believe it or not, Houston is a fairly liberal place. The mayor is a lesbian.

Yeah, well if we are talking about Houston then that's different but I meant Texas as a whole.

Houston, Dallas and Austin are most likely more liberal than other areas they are also more urbanized than other areas as well.