I'm (sometimes) a grouchy old(er) white guy and there are many things that are making me grouchy these days. First, the DA and police chief are making grouchy old(er) white guys look bad, like fools and racists. I don't want to be associated with such a view of life. It also makes me grouchy right now is that the cops in Ferguson and St. Louis County don't live there. It's no surprise that the departments treat Ferguson as occupied territories and treat the taxpayers who pay their salaries as vermin. It's time to require every cop to live in the city or county they police.
Yes, this is partially about race, but it is mostly about alienation. Cops who live in the cities they protect and serve are part of those cities 24-7. Policing is not just a job for them, but a commitment to their cities.
In IT development companies, there is an expression "eat your own dog food." It means that you have to rely on your own company's work, trust what is done by the people who work with you. That is what needs to be done in cities everywhere. Make the cops rely on each other, not only when policing, but for daily living. A police department that does not have resident cops who are willing to rely on their fellow-officers to protect and serve is a police department that is a waste of taxpayer money.
In this case, the chief of police has managed to make himself look like a dishonest man who cannot even find a way to spin his BS in a believable manner. I don't know that he is a grouchy old racist, but he and his officers have done nothing to get the people of Ferguson to trust him. Whether the story the police are telling is true or false, there's no one who lives there who is willing to cut them any slack, no one who is willing to believe the cops' story. If they lived in Ferguson, they would be known, their families would be known, they would be trusted.
It didn't help that the city police and the St. Louis County police decided to see if they could make it look like Gaza out there. We don't need military-type policing. Such shows of force are a statement that the police are total failures and have no idea how to do the job.
Again, the cops wouldn't be as likely to bring out the assault weapons if they were turning them on their neighbors as they would be if they were turning them on "other people".
Sure, someone will whine that cops won't be able to afford to live in Beverly Hills as an excuse to argue against such a requirement. Tough. I am absolutely confident that the taxpayers of Beverly Hills can afford to pay their police enough to live there. No, I don't think this should be negotiable. Cops need to live where they work.