Net sharpens divide over cop shootings

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Net-sharpens-divide-over-cop-shootings-3948528.php

From San Jose to Oakland to Vallejo, fatal police shootings often follow a familiar script.

An officer makes a split-second decision to kill, later explaining that he had no choice. His department struggles to communicate with the dead person's family and the public. Anger spills into the streets, with activists demanding that authorities condemn the shooting - not just as a mistake but as murder. And an investigation clears the officer of any wrongdoing.

This could describe the shooting of 18-year-old Alan Blueford in Oakland in May or many other recent Bay Area cases.

While there is little evidence that police shootings are on the rise, they have become more politically divisive and combustible, people on all sides say, in part because of the spread of video cameras and the immediacy of online communication.