question about police shootings

[DemPGH]

In a parallel to this, near where I live a police officer died in a car crash that was an accident while he was off duty; he was speeding, yes. The town reacted by lowering flags to half mast and going through a big public eulogy, which I thought was an overreaction. Of course it's sad when anyone dies like that, cops included, but an ordinary person would not have gotten that. In the line of duty, police are given too much leeway, so when one is injured or killed a LOT of assumptions are made at the start that probably shouldn't be, and burden of proof against police often seems higher than it should be or higher than in other cases. Many people have jobs that could be considered dangerous, so the "public defender" argument does not wash for me.