On Wed, 17 Oct 2007 18:45:08 -0500, Dave S
wrote in :

Turds.. I mean "suspects".. as a general rule
are directly responsible for the events leading to their apprehension,
and if injured, directly responsbible for causing an incident to
escalate to the point of their injury. Its really that simple.

Don't get me wrong, but I find your attitude toward SUSPECTS less than
respectful, to say the least. I'm sure you have encountered many
suspects who deserve to be called much worse, but in the US they are
_innocent_ suspects, regardless of how you feel toward them and
regardless of what information you may have about them, until they
have been convicted in a court of law (yes, that's the law in Texas
too). Such an attitude reflects badly on LEOs in general, and it
speaks volumes ...

I saw a piece on the NBC Nightly News recently about a patrol of four
Navy Seals on a mission in Iraq. It told the story of the soldier
leading them, and how, in the face of them surely informing Al Qaeda
about their patrol, he release some Iraqi civilians that the patrol
encountered, rather than silence them in cold blood. Sure enough, Al
Qaeda was informed, and launched 200 soldiers against the four man US
patrol that resulted in the death of the Seal who had released the
civilians. Despite the deadly danger it placed him in, he knew what
was right and just, and did it despite personal risk. That noble Seal
embodies the spirit of American justice, and he makes me proud to be
an American.

It seems many of us have forgotten that we Americans are not like much
of the world; our determination to uphold justice and freedom used to
set us apart, until the current regime in power in this country
started approving of torturing prisoners, warrantless invasion of
privacy, and trampling on our Constitution.

The leader of our country, while he was governor of Texas, put more
"criminals" to death than all the rest of the states combined, IIRC.
Perhaps such disrespect for human life and moral justice is unique to
Texas or a result of shallow insight, but it is reprehensible none the
less. It saddens me to see America losing its way through the
darkness of tyranny and injustice, and joining the unenlightened in
trampling human dignity. It always starts at the top.