In our lifetimes cops carry their batons on a ring on their service belts on the left side with their semi auto pistols on the right.I fully agree with you about the atmosphere of hostility directed at today's cops. It's very different from the way it was just a few decades ago.Yeah, and again, I'm not making excuses for cops (or even for the people who get shot in such situations), but it just seems like a very different climate for cops these days. You get a lot more people threatening cops both publicly and anonymously. To some extent, I can't blame cops for being a bit on edge in today's climate and the extent of hatred that the cops experience compared to when I was a kid.
To what do you attribute this dramatic change in the social climate?
There are so many reasons why things have changed...I'm old enough also... maybe not old enough to see cops with nightsticks on a beat but they did have a different focus back then....
I would say now the media and the internet is to blame for sensationalism of every little thing....it's in our faces 24/7 and people react, sometimes to a fake story or just a biased story.
Although it's not the only factor in change of "climate" it's a big one in my opinion.
Even then a cop on the street is an easy target for a cop killer which lately have been mostly Negroes bent on revenge for Michael Brown the rock ape and Trayvon Martin the dope smoking kid.