Risking your life for a monthly salary to help others has a very bad reputation.
Was once shooting pool with a highschool friend of mine when a big brawl erupted between two groups of guys. Punches, kicks and bodies flying everywhere. One of the groups ran out of the poolhall in unison, and one of those guys, moments later, returned with a gun.
Everyone in the poolhall who was watching this unfold, including me, dropped to the ground when we saw the guy with the gun - who was now aiming it at someone from the opposing group. Everyone but my friend that is. From the ground I was yelling at him to get down, and just then we heard the gun fire.
Before the shooter even ran off, having just shot a guy in the leg, my friend was running to help the guy shot, to help stem the bleeding. Years later he joined the NYPD, and was commended for his acts as a police officer on at least one occasion that I know of.
Not saying that all police are like him. Heck, I've heard a number of first and second hand accounts (not to mention the news), which suggests that A LOT of cops are s***. But I also think a good many of them are well meaning and brave (like my friend), and that the entirety of the profession shouldn't be disparaged out of hand because the good ones - the responsible ones - do quite often have to deal with A LOT of crap in sometimes very fraught and dangerous situations, and are likely not given the recognition they deserve because they are just doing their jobs.
