Folks, we need police, we really do. And there are a lot of good cops out there - but it is a bad combination for all of us when we find police officers playing "God with a Gun", sharing a bunker mentality of "Us versus Them" (with "them" being part of the community they are supposed to protect and serve), and enforcing petty bullshit laws to the point of needless violent confrontation.

Although the recently concluded Justice Department investigation of the Cleveland Police Department was a civil rights investigation, the abuses it found are symbolic of abuses against ALL of us. Yes, abuses often happen disproportionately against people of color, but there is a widespread problem of too many police too often using excessive force and being too quick to shoot against ALL of us.

Police behavior, the militarization of our police forces, petty laws and the ways those laws are enforced all beg to be changed. Otherwise we just continue down a dark path of a less free society headed towards a police state. My two cents . . .

To see more on the Justice Department investigation:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/05/us/justice-dept-inquiry-finds-abuses-by-cleveland-police.html