brahtw8 said:I will offer the following insight and observation from my own experience as an individual who often has occasion to represent government and law enforcement in the civil context.
In some areas there are institutional factors that breed a macho attitude and a general insensitivity to the public. Most often this occurs at the training academy, where the bad apples of the old guard are sometimes sent out to pasture and end up influencing the new generation.
Combine the above with the increasing militarization of police and the natural tendency of certain aggressive personality types to gravitate towards law enforcement (or the military), and it is not hard to understand why some officers are less than professional. This is not an indictment of the entire profession.
I also often represent police in the civil context and can appreciate what you are saying but in the specific instance referred to in this thread there is nothing to suggest that this officer was "less than professional" or, indeed, did anything other than enforce the provisions of the traffic code.