I will say the very few times I've needed to call them they helped, a little. One particular case I had to buy my stolen stuff back, I'm lucky they found it, an

I will say the very few times I've needed to call them they helped, a little. One particular case I had to buy my stolen stuff back, I'm lucky they found it, and they of course probably charged the guy who stole it with felony theft. Another case they resolved only after threatening to leave me with my problem unless I let them check my friends for warrants, which none had thankfully, and threatening to shoot me. Other encounters were usually uneventful, sterile and bureaucratic in nature, only once did I have what would be called a positive encounter, the cop declared respect for my rights. He still wrote me a ticket. And there's the countless "interactions" where you just see them around and they don't hassle you at all. All in all, you need someone who's job it is to deter crime and prosecute criminals in some way. But people willing to enforce unjust laws and who have personal incentives to make your life harder and some authority to do that when it pleases them to are not to be trusted. If we could have the former without the latter that would be great. But given that cops can't actually stop crimes unless they get lucky and most crimes go unsolved, and seeing as we have the latter, it's not worth it. It would be better to just encourage people to be armed for their own protection.