Ah, Seattle...

Video: Seattle Police Jail Elderly Military Veteran for "Walking in Seattle While Black"

Ah, Seattle...  Guess this story's been around a while now, probably a little buried as the PD's of NY, Saint Louis, and Cleveland drove Seattle from the headlines.

Lucky the poor bastard with limited hearing was only carrying a golfclub.  Were it a (perfectly 100% legal) whittling knife, he'd have been dead, seconds from the cruiser's approach.  Lots of speculation online about the police-officer in question, much of which, in my opinion, seems disturbingly centred upon her gender and/or sexual orientation.

Fact is, cops are, and have for a long time now, at least since the so-called 'War on Drugs' been trained in such a way, that they see the general public, BY DEFAULT, as a potential threat, as the enemy, as a hostile force to be subdued.  Actual military forces in hostile territories are taught more discretion in their dealings with civilian populations than day-to-day cops in the modern-day militarised US.  And no, while there may well be/is a racial component to this, this is not primarily a racial problem.  This is a problem of training, of psychology, or mindset.  A problem that is that much more exacerbated by an officer's pre-existing prejudices, such as they may be...  Firing this particular fool won't protect the next stupidly targeted senior citizen, or other innocent.