Stuff like this makes me distrust the police, too. I get uncomfortable when I see a cruiser or see a cop because for the first time in my life, I believe that doing something wrong isn’t a requirement to getting hassled by the cops. As one of the commenters over at Balloon Juice says, this is part of culture that thinks torture is OK, that accepts surveillance without warrants, and generally submits before authority simply because they have a government ID. We’re supposed to be equals with law enforcement, not ruled by it.

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