Would the USA tolerate for one minute the same behavior from our police

[Toots]

as we do from our military. What if a criminal shot a police in some city and the police just opened up on the location killing all that dwelled there? What if the locale police busted down your door at night and dragged everyone out in the street and made them beg for their lives? Why do we tolerate this from soldiers but not from police. Both are dealing with civilian populations. They supposedly fight for our rights but will not afford such rights (respect) to the locals. Why?

[Lars39]

1. We need to be concerned.

A good many of the troops will be our future policemen.

[BOSSHOG]

2. I doubt very seriously

whether our "conservative" citizens would care. You know, if you have nothing to hide why would you care if your door gets broken down and your house gets shot up and maybe someone dies. Its the price of living in America (according to conservatives.) My thoughts are genuine. My hate of "conservatives" is rational.

[MindPilot]

3. You've never watched COPS? It already happens here.

Albeit not quite as brutally as the Marines do it, but the police think nothing of invading into a house cuffing everyone, roughing them up a little bit, lying to suspects about potential charges and destroying the house searching for contraband. And that's just the stuff they let us see on TV.

[Totallybushed]

4. My guess would be that

there is a considerable difference in what the military and the police are trying to do. One is war, the other is law enforcement. One takes place in an arena where the monopoly of force is already established, the other where the battle to be the monopolist is being carried on.

The big question is not really, IMHO, why the military and the police use force differently. No, the big question is WHY ARE WE IN IRAQ TO BEGIN WITH?

[Minnesota Libra]

5. YES, I am convinced some people would indeed put up with it...............

.....and it would take more than just a few deaths on our own streets to convince some people that this country is about to fall into an abyss of no return.

[treestar]

6. A combination of "it'll never happen to me just to the criminals"

and "we are at war and they want to kill us all." That's how the right wing mind "works."

[Scoody Boo]

7. Apples and Oranges...

The mission of the military is completely different from that of the police.

[Asgaya Dihi]

8. We already do, we just don't hear about it.

If cops were caught on tape torturing a suspect in an illegal home invasion on their own time, investigated by the FBI among others, plead guilty and went to prison, we'd hear about that. Right?

No.

Rodney King was the exception, not the rule. Abuse goes unnoticed most of the time and even when it is proved we don't hear about most of them. Torture under color of authority by cops hardly got local notice, and none nationally.

Whatever impressions we have about the chances of this stuff happening here with us not hearing about it, take a half hour to listen to the tape then evaluate that line of thought. It does happen here, has happened and has been on the rise throughout the war on drugs. We just don't hear about most of them, even the ones with tapes and convictions. Convince a man he's fighting for the safety of his kids and he can do anything and still sleep well at night.

Link to an article about it
http://wate.com/Global/story.asp?S=3568680

Link to the audio, it gets ugly about 10 minutes in
http://wms.scripps.com/knoxville/siler/siler.mp3

And a thread right here on DU about it.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1300074