Eric Parker - not that Eric Parker - couldn't figure out why he was getting friend requests from middle aged white women from Madison County.

Then it dawned on him: "Oh."

Because Eric Parker is also the name of that Madison cop who body-slammed and partially paralyzed an Indian man who -- Heaven forbid -- refused to understand the English coming out of Parker's mouth.

And now women want to friend the guy.

And a few people even want to give him money.

Sure, a fund set up for Parker has raised far less than a similar account for 57-year-old Sureshbhai Patel, the guy Parker smashed to the ground. But by today the cop's fans had raised more than $3,350 - or $3,350 more than seems possible.

Last year, after the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., it didn't take long for people to choose sides. Online funding campaigns for Officer Darren Wilson eclipsed those set up for Brown's family. Organizers shut down the Wilson accounts when they reached $400,000. Not because there wasn't more cash coming in, but because they had to figure out how to legally spend it.

These are signs of our times. Signs of divisions we can trace back to Rodney King. But this thing is coming to a head again, you know, this impending dust-up between law-and-order and human rights.

You hear often these days how the country is going to hell in a handbag, how criminals are allowed to run rampant and cops no longer have backing to do what needs to be done. But that's as much bilge as Eric Parker's defense fund.

Sure, it's still a war out there - and good cops should get all the credit in the world, because what they do and how they do it is critical to the republic -- but it's no more a war than it always has been.

Sureshbhai Patel

Crime in this country has dropped steadily in recent decades. In 2013, the last year available from the FBI, violent and property crime reached 20 year lows. Your odds of getting murdered in this country are half what they were in 1995. Chances of getting robbed have fallen more than that.

And while it's still dangerous for cops, it is not more dangerous. In 1996 55 police officers were killed in the line of duty across the U.S. In 2013, according to the FBI, that number fell to 27.

Of course 27 is too many. But one paralyzed Patel is too many, too.

I've been asked a lot lately, in the wake of the gay marriage debate, what the next great civil or human rights battleground will be. And I think this is it.

Justice. And all that means.

It is the use of force by police. It is the fairness of justice for the rich and the poor alike. The battle is simmering now, in places like Ferguson and Madison, and more quietly in courts like those in Childersburg and Clanton, where the smallest of traffic offenses can lead to jail time for those who cannot pay immediately.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice took an interest in a Clanton case, pointing out that kind of court creates "a two-tiered system of justice" for those who have, and those who don't.

It is shaping up to be our next big fight. Which is sad, because we shouldn't have to fight at all.

For this is - as it must be - a nation of laws. For rich and for poor, for black and white and brown, for those who set out to do society harm, and for those with badges and guns - and gavels - who harm it in the name of protection. And revenue.

And law and order.

AL.com Opinion