I expect they will get away with it.
I don't think so, not this time. There's been simmering resentment about police brutality ever since Occupy Wall Street. There's been racial tensions ever since Trayvon Martin. And it's the mid-term elections so everyone's looking for a wedge issue. The tremendous overreach by the StLPD is pretty indefensible and the solution involves "taking guns of the streets" (even if they are police weapons and even if those weapons are military surplus). Meanwhile, training up police forces and drawing down SWAT is a jobs program. This is the sort of critical mass the militarization of police problem has been needing for a while now. I suspect we'll be hearing the name "Ferguson" for the rest of the year in some context or another. The Alamo it ain't, but it has all the markings of My Lai.
I find your faith in the institutions of this nation reassuring. It's always been tempting for me to join the disasterbating doomsayers and declare for the 19th time that I'll be moving to Europe ASAP, but if my wiser kin think things are weatherable, I'll stick around. Thanks for your logic and shit, bro.
Just so you know - it's not faith, it's reading the tea leaves. "Politics is dominated by the extremes because the moderates have better shit to do." - Jon Stewart, loosely quoted OWS failed because they weren't asking for anything. They were just mad. Nobody could really elucidate any sort of course of action that would make things better, so they seemed like a bunch of dirty hippies who just wanted to crank. So when you see a cop walking down a line spraying them in the face, you feel disquieted but they're just dirty hippies. Then you've got Trayvon Martin and here's a poor black kid being shot by some "stand your ground" vigilante and nobody wants that - but there's this big ugly 2nd amendment thing that only the most bleeding heart liberals want to mess with but still, it's uncomfortable. You've got babies with tear gas canisters launched into their cribs and you go "well their parents shouldn't have been doing something that causes SWAT to storm into their house." Then you read that they weren't, and all of a sudden "militarization of police" becomes a trending item. Right into the middle of that you've got what appears to be pure, inexcusable police brutality that ties in with all of it - racial tensions, militarization, brutality, inequality, economic downturns, the whole nine yards. Now all of a sudden everyone starts to say "enough." It isn't "faith in the institutions of this nation" it's an estimate that we've gone from "I feel uneasy about this but there's nothing to be done" to "I want something to be done about this." Really, I'm saying that the level of discomfort for Americans is 2 dead black kids, riots and journalists being teargassed. 'cuz a feature film about one dead kid just isn't enough, apparently.
Your skill in expressing yourself is such that me formulating a reply is often futile, as you've usually encompassed the issue thoroughly. Just thought I'd express that once, so that you know I appreciate your responses... perhaps especially when I don't have anything else to add.