[marina]

While I know intellectually that law enforcement people are like normal people, mostly good with a few idiots and douches thrown in, and a few bad days, etc., I was also raised by people who had every reason to hate and fear the police. My parents always had me watch for the cops and as an incentive to be a good look-out, I was told that when they caught us, I'd be wrenched away from them and deposited in a foster home or a jail cell. It doesn't help that when I was in kindergarten, the drug den my mom lived in was raided, which was terrifying, and I sat in jail (not in a cell, just in the building) waiting for my grandma to come pick me up.

So I have a pretty engrained fear of the cops, and I find it hard to breath when they're near me. When I was a new driver, I would cry every time I got pulled over.

And while I believe that cops should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law for their transgressions, I also recognize that there are some violent shit-heads out there, and talking nicely to them isn't always the answer. Sometimes some people need beat the fuck up in order to be subdued. These activists are putting good police in an awkward situation. What if one of the people they pulled over starts shooting, or decides to fight back another way. Now the cop has to worry about bystanders, even though the criminal won't give any shits.

It's also annoying that they kept asking "who's the victim?" That's a question you can ask when cops raid a home because they think people are smoking pot inside, but that's not a question you can ask when someone is being pulled over while driving. Any erratic driving, or disregard for traffic laws can potentially lead to an accident. A car is a deadly weapon. The victim could very well be one of these copblock jerks standing in the middle of the street recording the police with their cell phone camera, too busy to watch for speeding cars.