Leprechaun,

I read your posts with interest, and since you refer to me directly, am taking the liberty of replying in a public forum. Yes, it did occur to me that members of the police force may be reading and contributing to this thread, and I'm pleased that you are not only contributing but declaring your perspective. As I tried to make clear, I belive that the police forces in most "Western" nations contain people whose viewpoints cover a wide range. Clearly racist bullies and worse exist, but I certainly do not think that this is a sine qua non for being a cop, nor that they are a majority.

Email is very poor for conveying emphasis, so please bear with me if this is long winded. I checked the passage in my post that you refered to, and what I actually said was "I take from previous posts from US residents that the lyrics, whatever the motive for their creation, are an accurate relection of the feelings of that culture." So, no this does not imply that folks "like me" actually and by implication, erroneously, believe this on the basis of the song, its what people with first hand knowledge of the situation, Barry, Chet, Rosebrook, et el have said in this discussion. I always try to make it clear when I am speaking from personal experience and when, as in this case, I am drawing an inferrence from others views and statements.

As a matter of interest, outside of the main discussion, I agree with you and Frank its that the best way of alienating the police from any community not just LA, is to segregate them, and the return of the local cop to the beat on bicycle or on foot has I believe, been shown to have very favourable results both in community relations and crime statistics wherever it has been tried. However you may not be able to do this in one leap in a place like LA. I recoginize that teh police are doing avery difficult and often thankless task, all that I ask of them is what I would of anyone else, that in carrying out their job they exercise their consience, which I am sure, from the tenor of your post, you do.

Pete M