Doug> From our earliest days as a Nation, America has been
Doug> blessed with citizens of courage and character who have
Doug> dedicated their lives to keeping the peace in our
Doug> communities. Five years after the creation of the
Doug> U.S. Marshals Service in 1789, U.S. Marshal Robert Forsyth
Doug> was shot and killed in the line of duty. He was the first
Doug> of more than 14,000 law enforcement personnel since that
Doug> time to give his life to uphold the law and protect the
Doug> people he was sworn to serve.
If we don't keep up the Cult of the Dead Cop, then we might actually have to treat them like other civil servants, in which case it might get *very difficult* to continue militarizing them, poorly training them, and otherwise letting them "own the streets" where that means something roughly equivalent to "shoot anyone they decide to".
Other civil servants face dangerous job conditions, like the folks who pick up your garbage. But when was the last time one of them had a quasi-religious, cult-like funeral because they died while on the job?
The history of policing, and its movement from a working class job to a profesion, is in large part about creating and maintaining the kind of atmosphere around police officers that is necessary for them to protect (private property) and serve (the interests of the owners).
Clinton's just doing his part! :<
By the way, if anyone has a source for national numbers comparing violent police deaths versus police shootings of citizens, I'd love a URL or a bibliographic citation. My guess is that when you take out police deaths by natural causes or by traffic accidents, nationally, policing isn't as dangerous as the myth would have us believe, and that it's probably less dangerous than being a young male of color in urban areas.
Best, Kendall Clark -- THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS http://monkeyfist.com/