Quote Originally Posted by Joreth View Post
When Fred, the police officer, sees Joe use excessive force and does nothing about it then Fred becomes just as much a criminal as Joe. Fred has a legal obligation to prevent such abuses, and because of the power of the police unions this almost never happens.
Sure, he's guilty; but it doesn't therefore imply that Fred's own use of force should be automatically assumed to be excessive. That's what I take issue with. Fred's accusations should be treated the same way as any other: burden of proof, innocent till proven guilty, etc. Otherwise, it's just creating the reverse of the same problem - police can't use any force for fear of it being called excessive.