It is not just ice cream melting off cones in the 100-plus degrees heat of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. The reactions of local police chiefs to two recent high profile incidents of apparent police brutality and unjustified killing in the metroplex of around seven million people give hope that police invincibility for destructive and wrongful conduct is melting away as well.

We have heard the story many times. A cop assaults or kills an individual. The police leadership, as well as police union and government officials, immediately line up expressing great deference for the cop’s action, while painting the injured or killed individual in the worst possible light. The cop, at most, is put on desk duty or on paid leave for a while. Even if evidence stacks up that the cop behaved wrongly, the local prosecutor decides not to seek an indictment of the cop or goes through a prosecutor-orchestrated grand jury circus designed to ensure no indictment is issued. Much later, the harmed individual or the family of the deceased may be able to settle for some monetary compensation, often with a stipulation of keeping quiet about the matter.

Police invincibility is real and powerful. But, with the increased recognition among the public that police have become a great danger to the safety police are supposedly charged with protecting, this invincibility is melting away here and there.

Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.