RICO should definitely be used against churches. They should not be above the law, separation of church and state. Catholic church first.

Distracted driving, a misdemeanor, often becomes a felony when it causes serious injury or damage....it seems that's the case in Maryland.....

Jake's Law was passed in response. Texting while driving or using a hand-held cellphone while driving was already illegal in Maryland. ... Now, distracted drivers who cause serious injury or death can receive up to three years in jail and up to a $5,000 fine.

They damn well better prosecute him for that, and unsafe driving, illegal left turn, driving into oncoming traffic causing an accident, etc. Police are not above the law, they serve it. No excuses here.

I think it's largely arrogance and ego. You can tell she's not used to people who stand up to her. She also seems delusional in regards to her precious MIT and Yale students somehow being above the law.

Also, Nazis didn't allow for the possibility that there were some good Jews....I allow for good cops.
They are those who don't murder or stand with murderers, don't lie because it's easier to trick you than be honest, and don't act above the law.
Read better.

45 votes and counting...

The problem you have is that you cannot look any further than the last post you disagreed with. There are dozens of videos showing good police officers doing their job, ie. helping the community. Negative commentary goes hand in hand with cops abusing their power or breaking the rules because they think they are above the law.

If you believe cops can do no wrong, you're as fucking moronic as a person who believes cops can do no right. Fortunately, both groups are an absolute minority around here.

Um...wait.
So you're saying that if he wasn't in the open (but was still unarmed and still surrendering) it would be acceptable to kill him?
So you're saying that if the police didn't have "cover" from the unarmed unthreatening seated man/boy and/or his prone, unarmed, non threatening caretaker, it would be acceptable to kill him?
So you're saying that if someone felt threatened (which someone claimed they did, claiming he had a gun) it would be acceptable to kill whomever they are feeling threatened by, no matter what the actual threat level? (wouldn't that make it open season on cops, who make any reasonable black man feel threatened/in fear for their life?)
Are you saying that, had one of them actually HAD a gun, it would automatically be acceptable to kill them? (would that stand if it was a white woman with the gun? Why would it not stand for a man wearing blue?)

More than 'pressure' needs to be applied....the law needs to be applied. Police are not above the law, and have to account for their actions. When those actions are so incredibly unacceptable in so many ways, that accountability needs to include serious prison time or there's no accountability in reality. It's only by pure luck that there weren't two dead victims here....and there was NEVER a reason for ANY firearm to be drawn. If the cops don't see a gun, they should never pull theirs....they could reasonably un-latch their holsters IMO, and even put their hand on it, but not ever pull it until someone else brandishes theirs, and never shoot until someone else shoots first....IMO. They have a duty to be MORE responsible than the average citizen, not less.

Our gov't is above the law, doncha know? Obama taught me that.

'without authority of the United States'...who the fuck do you think the authority of the US is? It's Senators and Representatives, you twits!

No cops aren't above the law... that's why I anxiously await the next in this series of videos:
1. Badass citizen confronts cop caught jaywalking.
2. Badass citizen dresses down cop for littering.

Which "same point" do you mean? That the officer must show ID? That a patch on his arm isn't ID? That his using the car for patrol is against the law? Which point that he had to repeat to the cop before being understood did you find the most patronizing? I found the cop's hesitance to show ID odd and clearly wrong, officers MUST show ID when asked for it...at least in California.
Was he a 'cop gone bad'? NO. Was he a cop breaking the law. Yes. Was the videographer in the right to stop him? Yes.
The videographer obviously had taken this issue on as a pet peeve, as he as every right to do. I would imagine, if he saw a cop beating someone senseless, he would video that as well. This was the wrong he saw, and he did the right thing to solve it.
It sounds like you think cops are above the law, and should never be taken to task for non egregious violations. I think many would disagree. There's a reason the law was created, it's a public safety issue that cops are ignoring, because it's not about THEIR safety. Lovely. That's probably why they wrote it to be enforceable against individual officers criminally, it's the only way to gain 'compliance'.

Crab fisherman, among dozens and dozens of others. Being a cop is less dangerous than many many jobs not considered 'dangerous', but because cops complain and whine so much, most people would believe being a cop is the most dangerous job out there. Statistics say it's no where close.
EDIT:The 10 Deadliest Jobs:
1. Logging workers
2. Fishers and related fishing workers
3. Aircraft pilot and flight engineers
4. Roofers
5. Structural iron and steel workers
6. Refuse and recyclable material collectors
7. Electrical power-line installers and repairers
8. Drivers/sales workers and truck drivers
9. Farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers
10. Construction laborers
(notice anything missing there?)

There are more unpredictable dangerous situations to be dealt with in MANY other professions. It's not a lack of preparation that kills crab fishermen, it's the unpredictability of the ocean. It MAY be true (can't find statistics) that cops are more likely to be attacked by a human than most other professions, that doesn't make it more dangerous or unpredictable than other unavoidable, unpredictable dangers in other jobs.

Far more civilians are killed by cops than cops are killed by civilians. (This means your assumption/assertion that civilians can assume cops won't kill them, but cops can assume civilians will kill them is ridiculously wrong and backwards.) Last year, 111 cops died in the line of duty, of those, only 39 were 'killed' (as in homicide, 33 by firearms), the rest were all accidental. In that time, cops intentionally killed 316 civilians (that number also does not include 'accidental' deaths). That's almost a 10-1 ratio where it's 10 times more likely that a cop will be a killer than be killed.

It is no longer a minority of cops that perceive threats everywhere and 'take things too far' before they become actual threats. If citizens did this, they go to jail. Cops should not be above the law in any way.

I agree with 'cops should be on camera 100% of the time they're being cops (which is all the time, so includes at home, if they're armed there). It may not have avoided or minimized the Brown case though, it may easily have proven he was shot at and executed as he surrendered, adding fuel to the fire.

PS dangerous and hazardous are synonyms.
PPS. It's @newtboy....one word.

I can only judge the police on a person by person basis when they act independently.

Myself, I respect the police, and I obey and cooperate with them as required.
I've never done anything to necessitate any negative behaviour from them, so from experience, I have only good things to say about them. Though, I must admit, I've encountered some that were amazingly nice, and also some that were absolutely on a power trip.

BUT I know of three scenarios which Make them less than desirable.

1). The term Police should be synonymous with Peace (Peace officer). They are a team created to keep people safe. They uphold laws. Laws are meant to keep people safe.
But when they are used for other things, like aggressively engaging groups of protestors, they often behave against the people they have sworn to protect in insite more violent behaviours just so they can create arrests.

2). Police are given quotas. This is inherently corrupt. It's only purpose is to extort monies from the public and creates tensions between them and the people they are supposed to be helping.
It serves no purpose and forces even the good police to commit crimes against the people just so they can keep their jobs. These quotas are often passed down from ranking officers or higher up in the system.
This includes everything from Stop-and-frisk policies, to Speeding-infractions, to Roadside-vehicle-searches. It gives police a legal excuse to badger, bully, extort and abuse the people.

3). There are police not cut out for the job, and we've seen this in video time and again. The officer labelled as the "Hot Head". They over react, insight conflict, and use their position to create problems where none exist.
I can only attest to this example from what I see in the news. Being from Canada, we have different laws than the US, and I see this abuse most often in news from the US.
This type of officer either joined the system so they could be above the law, or has been tarnished and gone bitter along the way. They need to be weeded out and removed from duty.

All this being siad, the Police is an exclusive club. They are a close knit group of members which stand up and support each other. This could be a good thing. they need to rely on each other, especially in times of life or death.
Unfortunately, they also stand up for each other in times where they shouldn't. They protect the wrong doers in the system, cover up irregularities and just basically lie to cover up those officers breaking the law.
It's a system of "not covering up, means you can't trust others to come to your aid."

So, yes, we need the police. We like the police.
But if they don't rethink the way they operate, they only increase the gap between helping ind hindering the people. On the current course, they are forcing a large wedge between themselves and the people that are paying their pay check to keep them safe.
If you can't trust the police, they are no longer the police -- just thugs.

The good police need to stand up against the police that are abusing the system and making their job harder on a daily basis. Fix the system, fix the interaction, and then it will fix the work environment police work in.

@lantern53

When you have a country were it is acceptable for SWAT teams equipped with more weapons and body armor than an average soldier in your national military to kick down doors and throw flashbangs into people's homes on the "suspicion" that a small amount of drugs may be in the house, or to intimidate peaceful protestors by raising their weapons towards them, when it is acceptable for the NY city police department to conduct secret surveillance on anyone within three states who happens to be a Muslim in the name of counter-terrorism activities, when it is acceptable to taze people simply because they don't provide identification upon demand, when it is acceptable for the police to go to the wrong house to serve a warrant and shoot the dog that happens to live there then I think it is only natural that people are going to hate on the police. The police in the US (particularly the LAPD) have earned the hate they receive ten times over in my opinion for a lot of the reasons he states in this video.

Like he said, the problem is that you are telling a group of people that they are there to enforce the law. Which isn't a problem until it dawns on some of them that they occupy a position that allows them to actually act above the law and get away with it.

Every cop should have to have a camera attached to their uniform that is recording at all times while they are on duty and that video should be available for a civilian oversight committee to review. The committee should have the ability to punish or fire officers who overstep their authority or misbehave on the job. And the videos should be public record so we can see both the good cops and the bad.

Just another iteration of the weapons against all of humanity being cranked-out by cunts above all laws with a unilateral mandate to subdue, disrupt, and destroy lives in (insert country here).

I've known cops my whole life -- 1 ex-girlfriend's father, as well as a household of them in my family; serving the church and the state equally. And all of them lawful evil. Assholes with stories about being assholes. I'm sorry, but fuck you if you're a cop.

I don't care if you're a "good" cop. I've watched so-called good cops follow shitty orders and realize at the end of the mess that they had done wrong. This goes on CONSTANTLY; not simply a one-off, "oh cops are people too" scenario.

Not to mention their highway banditry.

Until the current state of police training and enforcement methods are reevaluated and they return rights to citizens, I cannot abide their involvement in domestic disputes and highway enforcement.

Sure, they save us from the evil that men would do, but as they currently stand, the American police force is a bastion and a playground for bullies that want to remain above the law.

And their internal affairs system allows this to persist. No transparency, which means the law is always blurred for their benefit. Luckily evidence beyond a reasonable doubt sometimes surfaces. Sometimes.

Sometimes...

OK, lets give the unidentified 'officer' the benefit of a doubt and say it was not intentional (although that's incredibly hard to believe when you watch what he does). It was a best gross negligence. He made a fast, illegal U-turn across a double yellow line and over the sidewalk without looking, nearly hitting a second person. When you injure someone during a criminal act (like a clearly illegal U-turn) it's a felony in most states. Why was he not arrested? Why is he STILL not arrested?
If they are still saying that he followed proper procedure, they must be saying they are above the law and not accountable for their actions under any circumstances. And they wonder why people don't trust the police. He and his superiors should be removed from law enforcement permanently, they don't understand it.