too much thread to read right now, but I can respect the job cops do.  I don\'t know how any of them can consciously enforce any law that does not violate someone else\'s person or property (ie drug, ****, and gambling laws).  However, protecting people from harm is the noblest thing a person can do, and I respect anyone who does, cop or not.

~~ps. fwiw, I just got chased by a cop on the way to the grocery store for a late night pizza after the Lettuce show.

RE: Yoda

Your "that was 25 years ago" comment is interesting. Because I am sure you are very aware that 25 years ago the world we lived in was WAY more dangerous. In fact every category of violent crime has been going down year after year.

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/viort.htm

We 30 somethings were WAY more likely to be abducted, molested etc etc when we were kids. Yet because of many factors like the media and politicians and the constant scare mongering people think there is a killer , rapist, molester hiding behind every bush in their neighborhood. Kids don\'t play outside anymore, moms look at single men with suspicion etc etc.

I was aware that the statistics have been moving in that direction... Cops were not the nicest to us growing up, so I have a different POV from yours...  Personally, I\'ve seen pretty much every town/city that I\'ve lived in continue to go down the crapper whether it\'s North Haledon, NJ, New Haven, CT or Clifton, NJ...  A lot of statistics tell a story, but IMHO, criminal statistics leave out the real victims, the actual town or city...  I have personally seen crim rise in Clifton and I attribute that to the current state of the economy...  When I made the "25 year ago" comment is wasn\'t attributed to crime rates being different, but really to the fact that the culture of the police officer has changed....  Personally, I don\'t trust many cops, but that\'s from having my car searching numerous times in CT for have NJ plates... But that doesn\'t mean that I don\'t respect them and what they do...