this may piss some of you off, but you're just going to have to live with it or stop reading my post...
i've got a real problem with cop bashing. it seems to have become popular. yes, the MRAP thing and others are 'silly' to me and the direction the political class is moving the departments, subtle as it goes, is irresponsible in my opinion. that said, there's only about 90% of officers that are good eggs and do what they their jobs for good reason.
come on guys...
let's turn the tables for a bit. when some dumbfuck screws up as a 'gun owner' do we all as gun owners assume the blame? no. we say it like it is. we say "that guy is an idiot and doesn't represent the firearms community"... we need to be using the same logic for cops. one guy plays a game and entices a guy on stop? i don't care for it. not one bit. but i'm not going to lump the other 30 guys on ankeny pd or across the country into that category... what reasonable person would?
the other thing i think people miss in this scenario is simple. KNOW YOUR RIGHTS. all i hear resulting from these snippets on the news is "cops can do this" and "cops can't do that" over and over. hell, if you had to list off what cops can and can't do, you'd know the state and federal code better than any lawyer you could hire. that's just silly and waste of your time. instead learn what you can do and be done with it. simple things like "am i under arrest" or "am i being detained" or "i don't have to answer that, may i go?" are some of the handful of things you can respond with. they aren't inappropriate and they don't have to be snarky...
when i see 'leadership' opting into these gov programs for all kinds of stuff i tend to get my hackles up. but i'm not upset with the beat cops for it... when the ISSDA and other orgs systematically oppose our 2A rights at the capitol as their default stance, they create a chasm between them and the public they wish to serve. that is inherently foolish, long and short term. however, when we get to the place where our default position is 'cops are against us' then we're part the problem too....
think about that...