Yes, this is terrible news.

The rest of your statement makes it seem like there is an organized strategy for people to kill the police. That is not so. None of the protests have had that tone. But if you view protesters and organizers and instigators and baiters, then you're really not going to be convinced otherwise anyway.

How did you get that from my post? There is a lot of anti-police vitriol coming from elements in this movement as well as purposely ambiguous calls for the police to be dealt with. But if you view all of the protesters and organizers as peace loving, kumbaya singing, innocent, no other intentioned individuals then you're really not going to be convinced otherwise anyway.
http://i.imgur.com/mKFXkfY.jpg

You're conflating the issue. People want a "kindler, gentler" police force, as you say, because they are owed that as citizens. No law abiding citizens, which make up 99% of most neighborhoods-- black and white -- would support targeting officers.
As for officers taking a more "hard handed" approach, I suggest police save that for the people targeting them, not most of the communities in the spotlight because of now-covered police incidents.

Citizens are owed a police force that protects and serves the community. That includes properly handling law breakers in a safe and effective way. If people would rather fight it out with the police on the streets as opposed to a court of law, then the negative repercussions that individual faces is on them. No public servant should die because a criminal doesn't feel like being held accountable for their crime and I sure as hell don't want the police to let criminals stay on the street because they fear any consequences from a lawful encounter. Communities get the law enforcement they need. A Mayberry Duputy wouldn't last a shift in the south side of Chicago.

And for officers taking a more guarded, hard approach to enforcement...well I called it.
http://gotnews.com/breaking-cop-unio...cessary-stand/

A ton of updates today:

1. DOJ will not be charging Wilson.
2. DOJ releases report detailing the FPD's evil racist and sexist atrocities.
3. And it begins again:

https://twitter.com/ryanjreilly/stat...32448479727616

https://twitter.com/AntonioFrench

WTF!!! A grandmother?
https://twitter.com/AntonioFrench/st...39228727328768

Breaking news: The City Manager of Ferguson has resigned. Also seeing tweets that the mayor has resigned also; waiting for confirmation from the AP:

https://twitter.com/AP

ETA: Ferguson mayor is not resigning.

https://twitter.com/AntonioFrench

I heard someone on NPR today say something to the effect of "Ferguson was shocking. It was a wake-up call that this is going on. Not just in Ferguson but across the nation."

Uh...I'm so tired of people having "shocking wake-up calls" for things that have existed for decades. This isn't everyone's "shocking wake-up call".

Update: the Ferguson chief of police resigned today.

Peaceful assembly underway at the FPD. Police in riot gear have shown up.

https://twitter.com/AntonioFrench

Two cops were shot in Ferguson last night. One from Webster Groves (a city on the other side of St. Louis) and one from St. Louis County. They were standing side-by-side, doing crowd control, and someone shot them.

http://rt.com/usa/239989-video-cops-shot-ferguson/

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/13/us...on-police.html

I'd rather have ignorant people get a shocking wake-up call that gets them to see something they were previously blind to. If you're trying to raise awareness wake-up calls are a good thing. I don't get why someone would complain about this.

Because it makes some of us wonder where the hell the ignorant people (who tend to be of a particular race) have been and why the hell the ignorant people care now. This isn't a mainstream media trend or something for the cool majority kids to Instagram about while it's a hot topic until the next hot topic. This is real life stuff that has been going on for decades and people in minority communities have been fighting this fight.

For some it may be a "shocking wake-up call." But to simply say "It was a wake-up call that this is going on, not just in Ferguson but across the nation," suggests that it's the first time this has really come to national attention. There have been plenty of "wake-up calls." The complaint isn't there are wake-up calls. The complaint is that wake-up calls are still needed because too many people have been hitting the snooze button.

How many wake up calls do we need?

The answer is blowing in the wind.

{Sorry, I couldn't resist.}

I started to respond but these both said what I was thinking.

A friend at the protest posted about the officers who were shot just minutes after it happened. I was so incredibly sad to see that but glad that they both survived. Reports say the shots weren't even fired from the group of protesters. I hope that person is caught.