mostly just a few speeding tickets. Experience is mostly neutral. One other data point…. My sister dated a guy in high school who was a total meathead… football player who was super into lifting and getting jacked who rocked a porn ‘stache in high school. He was actually pretty cool to me as the little brother of his girlfriend, but a total jealous meathead. He wanted to beat up anyone he thought so much as glanced at my sister wrong. I found out later I life that he had become a police officer and I remember groaning over the thought of him with authority and a billy club. Now in fairness, I will say he was probably a tougher talker than he was a true violent bully, but his mentality was definitely all about physical intimidation. I don’t think police departments do nearly enough to weed those guys out. And there’s no doubt those type of people tend to be attracted to law enforcement.

As far as who does the protecting… perhaps it IS the unions, but the end result is the same.

One thing I’d like to see is fewer solo patrols. When I’m in Europe, police seem to always work in pairs. I think situations are far less likely to escalate when there are two officers involved. It would cost a lot more, but I’d be willing to pay more in taxes.