Are you saying that these episodes of police misconduct we read about today are because police's hands have been too tightly tied?
If your answer is "yes", how would you untie them?
I am not referring to the fact their hand is limited, it surely should be when they have the potential for doing so much harm. I was pointing out that some officers feel they can't get the job done without cutting corners. But it's always been that way. The problems come up when fellow officers are expected to fault the way a situation was handled. It has become acceptable for an agency to conduct an investigation, most if not all of which is done under very tight wraps, and then release a statement that those involved acted within department policy.
In many instances the road to redress for a wronged citizen is purposely made rough to discourage anyone taking it.
In a situation where you have a perp, a victim, and the authorities it's the victim who has the fewest rights and the longest road to redress. And that was the point of my post, that we citizens are caught in the middle. On one hand you have the criminal who is under no particular control at the time of the crime and on the other hand you have the police who have the luxury of present their side after careful grooming, usually under a total blackout and with no particular time limit imposed.
So often the only reason a citizen ever prevails is because someone happened to photograph the incident. And now jurisdictions all over the country are passing laws to severely restrict the rights of those who would record an arrest or encounter.
There is so much opportunity for mistakes and abuses that it behooves us as a society to work very hard to make sure the actions and behavior of our officers is subject to a fair, objective review. That's not the case in many instances.