Quote Originally Posted by gimmethesimplelife View Post
I think the nice thing about Ferguson - the good that is coming out of this? People are going to be more likely to litigate against the police going forward and ask the hard questions of America and this citizenship going forward. Also - police everywhere are going to have to get used to the power of social media being used against them when they step over the line. Overall, their power going forward is going to be questioned and hopefully flattened a bit. My belief is that this is long, long, long overdue. Rob
I don’t think this one incident is all that pivotal. Lawsuits against police departments and municipal governments in general, have always been a big business in this country. Deep pockets attract that sort of thing. One more case of cops using what may or may not have been excessive force against a mob isn’t going to register all that much on the “world opinion” scale when journalists are being beheaded and a revanchist Russia is waging a not-so-covert war against a neighbor. And even if it did, I’m doubtful the average American is going to writhe in shame over what they’re saying about us in Portugal.

On a more basic level, I don't think the average cop who feels rightly or wrongly under threat is going to restrain his response out of worry over the might and power of the twitterverse.