'Ya know, I'm feeling pretty damn good right now about my hometown, Flint, Michigan, as well as my adopted hometown, Houston, Texas. In both cities, the police chief, instead of inflaming the protests, marched with the protesters, and I have seen cops marching with the protesters in both cities instead of firing gas, rubber bullets and pepper spray. In Houston, when a few troublemakers began causing trouble, the police didn't have to control it. The protesters did, and shut it all down yesterday. Makes me damn proud to be living in Houston, and am also damn proud to be able to call call Flint my hometown. Way to go!! Oakland? Los Angeles? Minneapolis? Watch and learn.

I keep waiting for all those great lessons we learned about effective (v ineffective) counterinsurgency to work their way into policing in America. So far, the crossover appears to be fairly slow and minimal

But concur with you - the best police forces are able to convince the communities that they stand together against outside opponents (in particular, criminals) who would do them harm.