http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25731525/

Police: Officer fired for demanding free coffee
Fla. cop allegedly threatened workers with slower responses if they refused

It would appear that the blog posted by the Savannah night club owner about how the police extorted the night clubs and similar places to hire off duty coppers at inflated prices might not be the simple rant of a cop-basher.

I know that our LEO's work a tough beat. But they stand to loose a lot of support from the average joe if they keep pulling stunts like this. Violating the law, extorting people for protection, threatening slower response times, making up excuses to pull people over, covering up for civil rights violations is not the way to use the power they are given by society.

There will be huge investigation somewhere of someone's police force that will go nationwide and will severely damage the credibility of cops everywhere.

And Daddyblue - you cannot have justice if the enforcers break the law almost as often as the criminals - the system works off respect - not just power. If officers speeding, tailgating and generally scofflaw at the vehicle code, well, studies have shown that they [and other criminals] will find justification to violate other laws.

I have no doubt that 75% of LEO's are law abiding and respectful of their role in society. However, they fail to make sure that the other 25% are drummed out - instead they get protected - the thin blue line protects the bad ones among them.

Bad guys are bad guys, but the good guys need to keep the bad guys out of their ranks. There are far too many stories like this every since week for it to a rare occurrence.