I think part of the Sandra Bland story is the apparent escalation of the encounter BY the officer. Asking sarcastic, passive aggressive questions when you have the trust of the community and a gun at your waist is abusive. Its outrageous to many of us who watch the video and just juvenile bullying really.

Regarding your comments on the danger of policing, its somewhat fallacious--police work is generally safer than it's ever been and not any more dangerous than simply walking the streets in most U.S. cities. Im having a hard time pasting the link on mobile but Radley Balko has a number of articles on the subject in the Washington Post and Reason.