Incredible Police Brutality

via Democratic Underground

The issue of "protecting their own" is one that often comes up. Whenever the offending member of the group goes as far as these two cops did, the rest have no hesitation denouncing and disowning them. But what about less extreme examples of brutality? That's where the famous "blue wall of silence" comes into it.

It's exactly the same thing with gun owners. When one of them flips out and kills the whole family, they're quickly banished into the dark realm of "criminal." But what about all the lesser indicators of unfittness? What about the gun owner who is known to drink too much or use drugs? What about the guy who smacks the wife around once in a while and everyone knows it because of her bruises and inappropriate sunglasses?

In those cases the "protecting their own" mentality supersedes any sense of moral disapproval at the behavior or true concern. Mutual respect, not wanting to butt into each other's lives, privacy, these are the primary concerns. What's lacking is a sense of policing their own and weeding out the bad apples BEFORE something serious happens.

As Cenk said about the cops, these guys, these unfit gun owners, do enormous damage to all of you.

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