I lived there for 3 years, knew many people who lived there much longer, and remain friends and in contact with people who live there yet.

As one of the other people who responded said, I never said the people who got beat didn’t necessarily deserve it. Case in point—in one vignette I am aware of, unruly subject A is pulled over for erratic driving. He refuses the breathalyzer test and moreover gives the police officer a bad attitude and/or shows outright contempt. I have no problems with forcefully making subject A comply with an on-the-spot blood test if the police officer in question has probable cause to back the hypothesis that subject A is intoxicated and is a danger to himself and others.

As for the accusation of "shooting 55 people in the back", perhaps you should cut down on the Dirty Harry movies and the hyperbole. As for the polizei record being cleaner than ours, that’s certainly debatable. For one thing, the police brutality issue is hypersensitized in the US due to accompanying accusations of the "brutality" being racially motivated, and moreover, our society has a much more civil liberty orientation, whereas Germany has more of an expectation of law-and-order (hence less sympathy for people who screw around breaking the law). I think your system garners more respect for the law and for law enforcement, and is less prone to have an incident simply because of the deterrent factor that the cop CAN in fact put the hurt on you if it is warranted.

Nope. Untrue. Unfortunately you inferred my comments somehow as an insult to German police. I think they rock for the most part. Every one I dealt with was very professional, particularly the GSG-9. Part of that, as I mentioned earlier, is that people don’t mess with them because they know they won’t be messed with. As some people say here in the US, "don’t start nothin’ there won’t BE nothin’."