50 bullets into Sean Bell.
The beatings in Philidelphia.
Death by tazer in Louisiana.

We don't need to defend the actions of police they have the courts for that. When people are so desensitized to such outrageous physical brutality on someone who is effectively participating in civil disobedience there is much to worry about. The comparisons to sport is disconcerting too, police brutality is not a game, it is an integral part of the occupation. This may not be the most egregious example of recent police violence but that is the problem - this violence is all to common place.

On a more anecdotal level - I want to mention hypocrisy for a second. I watched a cop ride righteously (but not in some emergency hurry) for two blocks the wrong way down Valencia street in S.F. placing other cyclists going in the right direction in the awkward position of having to decide what side to go around him. The I nearly got bowled over by some sidewalk riding cops on bikes. Recently I watched cops on bikes ride through 3 reds in a row - I made a point of stopping at each light (didn't want to get busted) and pass them in the blocks between.

This aloofness appears deliberate. Beyond protecting private property I think the role of cops is to remind us of state control. Using a Nixonian madman theory to mess with our minds. I have no respect for these thugs and resent I have to pay for their racism, their violence and their arrogance.

"When fascism come to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."
Alexis de Tocqueville (1835)

Prescient stuff for 1835!

Here is a discussion of the origins of this quote:
http://shii.org/knows/Fascism_comes_wrapped_in_the_flag