Some of them are decent. Some are stupid, and some are outright murderers. Just like the rest of us.

yeah. And also unlike the rest of us, they're, well, literally risking their lives every day. Their job is very dangerous. Frankly that's probably something we should work on improving too, just like we make sure medical workers have adequate PPE when dealing with dangerous infectious diseases. I feel uncomfortable with getting others to do dangerous stuff for me as police in a similar way as I feel uncomfortable offloading risk to other people who are probably doing it for money because they don't want to starve, at least in part. It doesn't strike me as quite right.

I don't like the cop hating. I think accountability and cooperation is a better tak, maybe I don't know the full story about what's going on with police, but an honest cop should be as beloved as a corrupt one is hated. Maybe even moreso, an honest cop is part of what's standing in between me and not just violent criminals, but also corrupt cops. I would love to come up with a better system to shape behavior so that we're all safer, but until we have that, well, I'm very grateful for any help I get protecting myself, y'know? It's not like there aren't violent criminals in the world and it seems like they genuinely do protect me from them.

I saw a (blackish) guy get arrested a little while ago outside my (mostly whiteish/asian-ish/"nice" neighborhood) house. They were just talking to him at first, and I was glued to the window the whole time, watching, wanting to make sure I saw if they did something they weren't supposed to do, like I hear about all the time. They talked for a long time and eventually to my surprise arrested him, and later it was revealed he was wanted for something else. The cops didn't do anything wrong, as far as I could tell. No struggle, no hitting, no nothing, just discussion, orderly, correctly-performed cuffing, and guiding him into the police car. I felt mixed feelings for being so suspicious of the cops doing their job to protect me, and for being so trusting and protective of the random guy going around the neighborhood.