Depending on which news source you check out, the police look better or worse in the above mentioned incident. However, it's a fact that the officers admitted that they stayed behind the metal door because they thought that Gelman had a gun, so obviously, Lozito's version is closer to the truth. Anyway you look at it, the police officers failed to act out of fear for their personal safety. In other words, they were too scared to do their jobs. But wait!

That's okay because the Supreme Court has already reinterpreted the constitutionality (???) of what has traditionally been considered a police officer's duty; they have redefined a police officer's professional obligation to the public. They don't really have one. That's curious as, generally speaking, an employer can override someone's Constitutional rights via terms of employment. In any case, the Supreme Court has decided that a police officer has no "special duty" to protect the public.

So who do they work for? Is it us? Not hardly. They work for the state which is not synonymous with society, at least not anymore. Therefore, police can overreact, pull out and use their various weapons without just cause and maim or kill innocent unarmed persons, or conversely, not react at all. They currently operate with impunity. The police may fail to take the appropriate action out of sheer cowardice or insolence with no repercussions at all.