Whenever these brutality cases come up, I recall my mom's depiction of police in her hometown.

My elderly mom is, sadly to say, not the most progressive person when it comes to race. But whenever these police brutality cases comes up in the news, she always surpasses me and talks sympathetically for the victim. She surprises me that is, until I recall her account of local police in her childhood homes in rural and small-town Kentucky. She recounted the days when there were no professional standards for hiring police officers and sheriff's deputies. New recruits were topically bullies hired straight out of high school and spent their time on-duty beating up "old people and drunks" (she never admitted this, but I suspect they may have beaten up my grandfather a time or two). So, to this day, my typically prejudiced mom will turn and give victims the benefits of a doubt.