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9:33 AM, Thursday, August 21st, 2014:   Man, how did we get this far off track? Honestly, the police in the Rodney King beating showed more restraint... yet people still can't seem to understand why this is detrimental to our society.   I'm not getting into the Ferguson issue right now because the truth is, none of us have the information necessary to make a solid judgment. Brotha was massive, could have easily been attacking the officer and we may never know what happened. Eye-witnesses are worthless and there is no video. But this Powell video is an entirely different thing...     In an attempt to defend those officers I've heard everything from "he asked for it" to he was "charging them". Understand this... my only issue is with training proceedure these officers followed because one dude with a steak knife vs two dudes with a knife never has to end like that. Ever. I mean the entire concept of it is laughable. If you and your fellow officer can't put one man with a knife down, you're untrained. You could easily have had one cop cover with a knife and the other use a taser or mace or I don't know, fucking talk the dude down. He was "off". Of course there is another angle to this that you have to address: if that was a crazy white kid asking to die, pacing with a steak knife the officers would've treated that differently. Black is inherently scary to average white people. <shrugs> just is. But guess what, YOU ARE THE POLICE. Be better at your fucking jobs. This was NOT a scary situation. People were standing around laughing at the dude. He even MOVED so those people wouldn't be in the line of fire. You had back-up coming, he wasn't a danger to anyone but himself - and who exactly did you fucking serve here? So after arguments like this, I finally made this video:     Shit like this happens all, the, time. The citizens you serve are often insane. It's your job to protect and serve them as well. Wait until back-up comes... use a myriad of other weapons - as long as you have one dude with a gun covering - you have several options. You could also fucking MOVE. Work strategically. YOU HAVE A FUCKING CAR. Stand BEHIND it. ALL HE HAS IS A STEAK KNIFE. I mean, this is just so ridiculous. And don't tell me I'm not a cop - DO YOUR FUCKING JOBS. I'm a citizen who has a right to demand that the people who "serve" me maintain certain training standards. I don't need to hold every postition in my local government to say "YOU ARE NO LONGER SERVING ME." And what kills me, is by saying this?  I'm lumped in with some anti-cop crowd because no one can understand NUANCE anymore. I argue the side of the cops CONSTANTLY, and if you scroll up - that's what I did with the Mike Brown case. But here? If you continue to justify these "Call of Duty" cops our society is in serious, serious trouble. There are PEACE officers driving TANKS for fuck's sake. This is a massive shift in the past 50 years and we need a bit more concern as citizens here because for the first time, I'm pulling the "our freedoms are in jeopardy" card. I am constantly annoyed by those conspiracy theorists but we're now to such a point where it's not a future-prediction. You have a police force that acts like they're entering a war-zone at all times. In fact, I believe walking up to a car during a traffic stop is FAR MORE DANGEROUS than this Powell situation was. His hands were out of his pockets, all he had was a fucking steak knife and he wanted to die. Yeah, what a threat. Fucking put him down, cuff him and take him to the looney bin. How fucking hard is that? Anyway, I just had to get this off my chest. To my black friends with children, my heart goes out to you. You are not treated like citizens with white skin no matter what you're doing. I have no idea how that changes.   Adam