Stephan:  Literally each and every day I see at least three and, often, five to eight reports on bizarre thuggish police behavior. I have chosen three of the six I saw this morning to make the point. Clearly, something has gone seriously wrong with law enforcement policies. I covered police performance as a journalist many years ago, and saw maybe three to four such events during the course of a year.

Stephan:  The ripples that flow out from police brutality events don't stop at our border. This report tells the story of a middle aged, non-English speaking Indian who was visiting his son and apparently was crippled by police for walking in a White neighborhood while Brown. I have chosen an Indian paper's take on this event. I don't think most Americans realize that many people throughout the world see the U.S. as the greatest threat to peace, and are reluctant to visit the U.S. because they perceive it as a dangerous country. Pew Research did the heavy lifting to get actual data and reported this in 2007: "I would like to describe to you what we have learned about nature of the anti-Americanism we see today. First, it is worldwide. This is not just a rift with our European allies or hatred of America in the Middle East. It is a global slide, and positive views of the U.S. have declined in other regions of the world, particularly in Latin America and Asia. Our 44-country 2002 poll found America’s image slipping in seven of the eight Latin American countries surveyed, while our 2006 survey revealed declines in Japan and India, two still relatively pro-American Asian powers. Other polls international polls, such as BBC and Gallup have confirmed the continuing world-wide nature of America’s image problem. Second, while anti-Americanism is a global phenomenon, it is clearly strongest in the Muslim world. For instance, in all five predominantly Muslim countries included in our 2006 study, fewer than one-third of those surveyed had a favorable view of the U.S." That was in 2007. Not surprisingly matters have only gotten worse. So much for the shining nation on the hill.

Stephan:  I am sure there is more to this story, but I can see no reason whatever for this event to have gone as it did. We are going to have to change the way police are trained. This sort of thing will end up affecting the lives of many people and, I suspect, is going to cost the city of Albany a great deal of money. This is really the story of a murder.