I used to say that. Problem is, it isn't entirely true, and even if it were it doesn't matter; some of the abuse has become embedded in the system and enshrined under the umbrella of "necessity".
Background: I am an ex-cop. Been out a long while, but I still remember well. Heh, still have nightmares actually.
I was sworn in with the fire of passion in my soul, "To Protect And Serve" engraved on my brain, and a strong if idealistic motivation to protect The Good Folks from The Bad Guys.... strengthened by my recent loss of a good friend in a robbery at his place of business, btw.
Well, there are problems there. For one, as SCOTUS has noted, the police are not liable for your protection; they're there to enforce the law. As much as Rookie Goshin WANTED to protect people.... there wasn't really a lot of opportunity to do so. Throughout my time behind the badge, there were only a few such moments and I cherish each one.
Most cops spend most of their time writing reports AFTER the fact, and handing out fines and tickets, and dealing with drunks and druggies... and after a while you start to view ALL non-cops as presumed-scum-until-proven-otherwise. It's a pandemic among cops who have been in more than a few years. You get a very negative view of humanity, dealing with the dregs and scum and even regular peeps not-at-their-best.
That's one problem.
Bad cops are another... and there's more of them than most of us want to admit. I'd say close to a third of those I worked with had no business wearing a badge. They were either too enamored of their own authority, bullies or eager to dish out violence to anyone who gave them half an excuse.... or else they had grown indifferent and uncaring, hardened and callous and lacking in compassion from seeing too much.... or they were By-The-Book-Nazis with all the human kindness of an automated hydraulic press.
We need to get better at weeding those out. They are serious problems and give law enforcement a bad name.... but the Thin Blue Line tends to close ranks and protect its own.
That leads to two more problems, more recent in vintage: Officer Safety as THE priority, and the militarization of the police force.
In my day, we knew when we joined up that it was dangerous, that you'd probably get hurt sometime, that you might get killed. Sure, we tried to be careful but it was a risky job and if you can't take a joke you shouldn't have joined. Today though, Officer Safety has become paramount to an insane degree... departments are so frazzled about liability and workmans comp and lost time and so on they've literally starting saying Officer Safety Is Priority One.
Oh hell no. It is NOT priority one.
MANY things come BEFORE officer safety. Protect and Serve the public comes first. The Constitution comes first. The Law comes first. Right and Justice come first, or should.
But no.... we've gotten so obsessive about Officer Safety that we're Tasering 12yo's and 90yo's, and we're using SWAT teams for what used to be a two-uniform job.... hell I saw THREE county cops in black body armor conducting a routine traffic stop on an old man, for speeding.
Officer Safety does NOT come first.... if you can't deal with that, don't join. In my day it was OUR JOB to be the ones who TOOK the risk, not the ones who avoided risk at the expense of the citizenry.
BTW.... being a cop is dangerous but not THAT dangerous... being an Electrical Lineman is statistically FAR more dangerous. Fact. Look it up. Plenty of jobs are dangerous.
Militarization... that was starting about the time I got out, and I didn't like it. If you arm, equip and dress cops like Paramilitary Storm Troopers.... they're going to start ACTING like them and being PERCIEVED by the public as such! When you get all that cool war-fighting gear from the DOD the Sheriff feels the need to justify it by using it... and it makes policing feel like being an occupying soldier in enemy country.
Final problem: the so-called War On Some Drugs has gone WAY WAY out of hand. Police powers to search, seize and confiscate have gotten insanely broad and commonplace. It reinforces the para-military attitude as well. Just like Prohibition in the 1920s it EMPOWERS the criminal element by giving them a high-profit cash business, making them powerful and making it easy to CORRUPT our government officials with bribes and threats. It's gotten to the point that good people with chronic illness who NEED pain management meds are treated like presumed druggies, because apparently getting pain relief to people is LESS IMPORTANT than trying to make sure, heaven forbid, than someone somewhere isn't getting high.
We really got to have a lot of reform, before these problems result in even more severe backlash.