It’s been another night of protests across America, after a grand jury failed to return a criminal indictment against a white New York City police officer who killed an middle aged, unarmed, overweight, and out of shape black man with a choke hold that is banned by NYPD policy. 

Thousands were in the streets in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and many other cities.  Generally, these protests are going fairly smoothly and the cops have been keeping a respectful distance – something that could be good policing, or mandated from above.  There were some arrests on the heated sidelines.

But even as the crowds exorcise their frustration and disgust over the failure to produce criminal charges against a cop whose actions were clearly documented on a widely seen video, more atrocities were revealed across the country.

In Phoenix, Arizona, a 30-year old white police officer – so far unidentified – shot and killed unarmed black gather of four Rumain Brisbon, after “mistaking” a prescription medicine bottle for a gun.  Naturally, America’s gun happy cops reacted to yet another snuffed out life with utter callousness.

“This one went bad from the standpoint of how it ended,” said Phoenix Police spokesman Sergeant Trent Crump, “but the officer was doing exactly what we want him to do.”

Ann Hart, the chair of the African American Police Advisory board of South Phoenix said the shooting reinforces “the impression it’s open season for killing black men”.  Activists are organizing rallies to protest the killing.

Across the country in Cleveland, Ohio, the backgrounds of the two police officers involved in the shooting death of 12-year old Tamir Rice bubbled over, and it’s insulting.  The officer who shot and killed Tamir had been judged unfit for police service two years earlier by a small suburban force where he worked for six months

So take that in for a moment – Officer Timothy Loehmann was hired by a small-town police force that found him to be mentally unstable, “distracted and weepy” and incommunicative.  He was dismissed, and then hired by a big city police force.  Last month, Loehmann shot and killed the 12-year old boy less than three seconds after arriving in a park to investigate reports that someone was brandishing “probably a fake” gun. 

But these monumental screw-ups are just the tip of the iceberg.  US Attorney General Eric Holder said on Thursday that there is reasonable cause to believe that the Cleveland Division of Police engages in a pattern of using excessive force.

Following an investigation of nearly 600 “troubling, high-profile use of force incidents” between 2010 and 2013, “we determined that there is reasonable cause to believe that the Cleveland division of public police engages in a pattern and practice of using excessive force,” Holder said.

“The city has acknowledged that the Department’s findings raise issues of importance to people really throughout this community,” he added.  “Together, we have agreed to a statement of principles that will lead to a court enforceable consent decree, including an independent monitor who will oversee the implementation of sustainable reforms, assess compliance based on objective measures and ensure that robust new policies and practices will result in more effective and constitutional policing.”