> the benefit of the doubt Police lost that benefit a loooooong time ago. Respect is earned; covering up bad behavior and criminal activities is a reputation t

> the benefit of the doubt Police lost that benefit a loooooong time ago. Respect is earned; covering up bad behavior and criminal activities is a reputation that deserves scrutiny and suspicion. They can regain the benefit of the doubt only after their reputation is free of blatant murdering innocents, officers that engage in criminal acts are reliably prosecuted, and the culture that encourages escalating confrontations to violence is fixed. > put their lives on the line Police work isn't particularly dangerous compared to many other jobs. It's not even in the top 10. http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/04/the-10-most-dangerous-jobs-for-men.html http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/04/the-10-most-dangerous-jobs-fo... Regardless, modern police culture encourages pushing all of the danger onto other people when they treat everyone as if they were violent. > keep people safe That's not always the case. Police incite a lot of unnecessary violence. Also, the SCOTUS has ruled that Police do not have a duty to actually prevent anything. They usually show up afterwords and write reports/etc. Generalizations are problematic; obviously some people do try to keep people safe, but reality is more complicated.