If I make the conscious and consistent choice over time to brutalize the innocent in order to draw a nice salary and safe pension....then I am piece of ethical filth that decent society should revile. I don't even have the patina of an excuse to avoid personal responsibility. And, yet, the world nods in compliance and even in respect at our Boys in Blue. Yes officer, they agree, it is your job to tase me into unconscionusness for a traffic offense. Yes officer, it is your job to break down my door in the middle of the night because a neightbor has reported a bag of marijuana. Yes,officer, you as an individual never, ever bear personal responsibility for your acts -- you know...the ones for which your victims pay through taxes for you to perform, the same acts that would be illegal and denounced as immoral if performed by an non-uniformed individual. And yes officer, those who question your exalted authority to beat, tase, and/or shoot anyone deserve a good long tasing themselves. Examples of acceptable excuses include, "I felt threatened", "they were resisting", "they were obstructive," or "they did not obey an order."