Growing up in a tough & poor section of Boston, we got to meet the police on occasion, up close, personnal & in your face. They'd smack us about because, I still don't know why. They were worst than the criminals that payed them off. The poorer neighborhoods got the worst cops & there were many. Back then a cop was looked on a low life scum. They were drug dealers, pimps & drunks with chips on their shoulders looking for any reason to use their gun. My sister at the age of 3 had polio & the cops came to take her to the emergency room, they told my father he could walk if he didn't want to pay for the ride. Over time this type of treatment by law enforcement officers began to change for the better but I believe we're back to square one again. Mainly because the public has allowed it to backslide.

MaGrath, there were far more bad apples, when I was growing up than good & if a decent cop got the notion to report on one of the bad breed he/she ended up with the full weight of the force coming down on them. Yrs back a close friend of my mother's family (Joe Stanley), a Boston cop would not take any part in any shady dealings. He was told to get with the program. He spent his time up until his retirement behind a desk doing night duty. He wouldn't give over & as a matter of personnal pride he wouldn't let them force him out either. So, at least in those days the cops that should've been dealing with the public & could've done a lot of good for the community were buried. When an unarmed kid is shot or a suspect is beaten it's more that just a few bad apples it's a bad policy that's tolerated not only by the citizens (who know what's good for them) but also by other law enforcement agencies. We shouldn't need public watch dog groups to monitor the police in order to make sure that they comply with the law.

Barry