I have mentioned the LEOs in my family.  They are all local.  Small town, county.  I mentioned that one of them is a genuine psychopath.  That one had his heart set on becoming a State Trooper.  He failed the test.  He got another and failed that one. You are not supposed to get another but politics is what it is and this was when we had a democratic governor and this persons grandfather, my brotherinlaw, is a former elected democrat and for years has been active in state and local politics.  He used his connections to get him a second shot and when he failed that he called the governor.  No, really, he called the governor got him on the phone and yelled at him.  I was there.   I was pretty awed.  I knew he had connections but, anyway.

When he got off the phone he told me this person had failed the psyche test.  As in not even close failed.

You are correct in higher standards should be met for LEO's, but in some regions, the reverse is happening.

And some cities, notably Baltimore have seen steep reductions in staff.

Reuters) -

Already beset by a public outcry over the high-profile death of a black man in police custody and a rising murder rate, Baltimore's police department is facing another headache: it's shrinking fast.

The number of uniformed officers in the mid-Atlantic city fell 6.1 percent last year and has shrunk by even more in the first half of this year, according to police data seen by Reuters and not previously reported.

The fall in 2015 was the biggest decline in police numbers among nine comparably-sized U.S. cities reviewed by Reuters. The police force in Detroit and El Paso shrank by 4.9 percent and 4.3 percent, respectively, while Denver and Las Vegas saw increases of over 5 percent.

Well then, no harm, no foul.  He should just get on about his business, because in fact the dude was not breaking any damn laws.

"Resembles a robbery suspect" is the second oldest trick in the book ("Hey, you shoe's untied.")  It is the universal bust for any time you need to hassle a Black man.  It obviously worked on you as a kind of universal Get Out of Jail Free card.

Before I will accept that rationale, I want to hear the exact description of the "robbery suspect" the officer was looking for, when and where the robbery occurred, who had described the suspect, and when and by what means that information was relayed to the officer.

Back in 1969 I got a speeding ticket in South Bay, Florida driving home to Miami when I was a university student in Central Florida.  When I told my Dad he said South Bay has been a speed trap for the last 20 years; everybody knows that.  It was a speed trap with a a 60MPH to 35 MPH limit at the bottom of a small hill and a LEO right there.

That is the only ticket I have ever had.  Castile seemed to be getting tickets on a regular basis.  A significant number, certainly not all, were not moving violations where the DWB was not an issue.  But a lot of the violations were what seem to me to be lack of money.  I am always outraged when I get my auto insurance bill and I can imagine how someone like Castile would react given what I guess his income seems to be.

Problem is, not just for Castile but lots of others in his situation, is legally driving a car often costs more than they can afford to pay.  I have seen claims that 1/3 to 1/2 of the vehicles in places like Miami and LA have no insurance and in some cases fake tags.

While what happened to Castile is tragic the bigger picture is large numbers of folks in America simply can't afford to legally drive.  The result is these folks wind up going deeper and deeper in debt due to the legal system.

Not sure if there is a solution to this.  Almost no one would suggest eliminating tags, insurance, speed limits, parking rules, and such.  But in most places it is necessary to drive a car if one has a job.

"The Republican National Convention has also historically rejected the idea that state laws could bind delegates any more than state party rules or directions could. The very first time delegates were supposedly bound by state law was at the 1912 convention.

Both the Illinois and Oregon delegations announced that state law dictated how they were to vote, but that some delegates did not want to vote as ordered. In the same way the Republican convention had always rejected any sort of binding, those delegates were allowed to vote according to their consciences and ignore state law. The Oregon delegation made similar announcements in 1916 and 1920, and each time delegates were allowed to ignore state law and vote their consciences.

Although some claim it is "illegal" for delegates to defy state laws instructing them how to vote, the U.S. Supreme Court held in two cases nearly forty years ago that state laws could not trump national party rules. Part of their reasoning was that political parties must be free from government control, particularly in matters as important as who the party's nominee would be, delegate selection, and how delegates could vote.

A careful reading of the rules passed by the 2012 Republican National Convention proves this to be the common understanding and practice of the party. Rules 14 and 16, which govern the election and selection of delegates to the convention, include several references to the fact that the national convention is free to ignore state law, including two occasions where rules begin with the phrase "No state law shall be observed..."

And Rule 16(b)(1) stipulates that state party rules take precedence over state laws governing the election and selection of delegates, and that national party rules take precedence over both. So clearly the national party does not accept that state laws can supersede either state or national party rules.

Local lore claimed that the Chinks got their name because of a belief that if one drilled a hole straight through the earth from Pekin one would end up in Peking, now called Beijing.

In fact any accomplished photographer would instantly recognize this as an example of what is called the "spray and pray" school of photography.  Today's high burst rate cameras can capture a large number of frames very quickly, often resulting in quite embarrassing images.  One thing I have noticed when I capture images of the FSU Lady Volleyball players is that some of the images show the ladies with their eyes closed during play.  In some cases this is simple blinking, in other cases they are shying away from the ball.  In any case I would never post any of these images in public, so I do not suffer the ire of my Lady Seminoles.