>>True - but it's still a job where you run the risk of getting killed and you're always around some sort of conflict. I (along with most people) - when I see gunfire or a fight, the first thing I'm doing is looking for the exit and getting as far away as possible. Cops are a strange breed of people - when there is problems and conflicts their instinct is to head straight for it. This kind of voids the myth we're taught in grade school that cops are all super-friendly types of people that only want to help people. Now toss a bunch of these guys together with a bunch of military grade weapons, equipment and inadequate training you end up with a serious situation that in reality poses a threat to the safety of the citizens.
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>>Too bad you weren't an adult in the 1960's. They way that you are talking about the police, it sounds like you would have been right at home as a part of Bill Ayers' gang - the weather underground.
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>Bill Ayers never invaded another country (Vietnam then- Iraq later) he never napalmed civilians nor did he fire on students at Kent State.
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>He and people like him are convenient lightning rods for people (on both sides, by the way) who want to ignore the real issues of that time.

Wasn't his gang heavily infiltrated by FBI? I think something of the kind emerged when archives' classification expired after 50 years. And I don't think the 50 years was the measure of how dangerous they were, but of the size of the dirty laundry and its owner.