You've probably heard about the allegations of police brutality in Philadelphia after three suspected shooters were surrounded, thrown on the ground and kicked, punched, and night-sticked by several Philadelphia police officers this past Wednesday. The entire incident was captured on video tape by a news crew for a local television station and has been broadcast on most of the major news networks. It was the Rodney King incident all over again.

It's a sad and scary sight to see the men in blue behaving like that; police officers we're supposed to trust, support, and believe in to serve and protect. I remember one of the first lectures I heard at the Tulsa Police Academy was that we should never take the violation of the law personally; regardless of how heinous or terrible the supposed offense was. It was simply not our job to impose punishment on a person or people who had not yet had their day in court. It was sometimes hard to adhere to that mantra when you witness man's inhumanity to man on an almost daily basis in larger cities, but I think most of us tried.

But I also have to tell you that there's so much more going on in the minds of a police officer than what normally meets the eye and there's more going on in the Philadelphia assault than meets the eye too. Last Saturday, a Philadelphia police officer was shot and killed, the third in-the-line-of-duty police officer death in that fair city in the past two years.

Line-of-duty deaths significantly affect the entire police department. Even in big cities, it's easy to become complacent and sometimes forget about all the academy training you received designed to keep you safe and out of harms way. But when a fellow officer is killed; someone you know, someone you like, someone out doing the same job you're doing every day, the fragility of life and the inherent risks of wearing the badge and the gun come home to roost. You know it just as easily could have been you. The officer in Philadelphia left for work last Saturday just like he did every work day, fully expecting to return home when his shift was over. But he didn't. And because he didn't, his family suffered a loss that is almost incomprehensible. Even though they knew that physical risk was inherent in the job, they, like the rest of us, never believed it would happen to them.

I and the other brothers and sisters I worked with every day on the Tulsa Police Department realized those risks as well and we also had the mind set that it would never happen to us. But it did. It happened to a friend of mine, Sgt. Thurman Spybuck, who was participating in a drug raid in 1971. Two officers were at the front door and he was covering the back when a man ran out the back door and headed across the back yard. Thurman identified himself and ordered the man to halt but he didn't. On a dead run, he turned slightly towards the police officer, raised his arm and fired one shot that hit and killed Spybuck instantly.

The department immediately went into mourning for Thurman and his family. At his funeral, color guards from other police departments around the state and the country were there to pay their last respects. It was one of the toughest funerals I've ever had to attend.

And, as a group, we became angry and jumpy and suspicious. Once again, the nature of our job had been brought to weigh heavily on our minds and our hearts. Understand that police officers aren't shrinking violets to begin with. It takes a certain personality and mindset to walk into dangerous situations with a positive, get-the-job-done attitude. Police work is not for the faint of heart and so our type-A personalities took over in the face of this tragic, senseless death. We were madder than hell at that segment of the community who chose the dark side instead of the bright side of life. We were madder than hell that they thought no more about a human life than to take one at random. And we were madder than hell that they might try and take ours next.

So for several weeks, we approached our jobs differently than we had in the past. We were more careful. We got out our Academy notebooks and brushed up on proper procedures to follow when confronting a suspect, whether he or she appeared to be a threat to our safety or not. And I suspect that some officers applied a little more force with a little more anger in arresting suspects during that time than they would have before one of our own was murdered.

Even though it's not a justification or an excuse, I also suspect that's probably what happened in Philadelphia this past Wednesday.