"The notion that police officers are entitled to anonymity after such an action is not merely anti-democratic; it is, in fact, totalitarian. Â The idea that a police department, with all of its resources and sworn personnel, might claim to be unable to protect an officer from retribution, and therefore employ such anonymity to further protect the officer from his citizenry is even more astonishing. Â And any police agency showing such institutional cowardice which might then argue its public should continue to come forward and cooperate with officers in police investigations and to trust in the outcome is engaged in little more than rank hypocrisy. Â After all, if an armed and sworn officer â backed by all the sworn personnel of his agency, by the power of its prosecutorial allies, the law and the courts â is afraid, then why should any witness or party to any crime, unarmed and unallied as they are, be asked to come forward and participate publicly in the process?"
-David Simon
http://davidsimon.com/the-endgame-for-american-civic-responsibility-pt-i/
