I was taken by yesterday’s Lawrence O’Donnell MSNBC interview of Rosa Brooks, author of Tangled Up in Blue, a “radical inside examination of policing in modern America.”

Brooks is a Georgetown University law professor who mid-career decided to train and serve as a reserve police officer in Washington D.C.   Her inside perspective gives a close-up look at policing, good and bad.

The interview is posted on Youtube, (and here below) with the following introduction:  “Brooks says throughout academy training, police officers are ‘primed to think that a threat could come from anywhere at any time,’ but they must remember their ‘top priority is protecting the communities they serve.’

In light of recent news stories of extremist anti-government views among officers in nearby Vacaville, one begins to wonder about police training and “culture” in the Solano County sheriff department.  Benicia’s former Chief Erik Upson is serious about “community policing” and a “positive police culture.”  Let’s hope his perspective has taken root and continues deep in the culture of our local cops.