Your fear, I think, has far more to do with an availability bias of these relatively few stories getting plastered everywhere. You're much more likely to be killed in a gang or drug related shooting than you are by a cop.
- I've been hassled and cursed at by an officer.
- I've watched a friend who was doing nothing wrong be roughed up by an officer.
- I've had police give false evidence against me on a traffic citation.
- As a child being physically bullied, a friend and I went to a cop for help. When we told the cop that these other kids were trying to beat us up, the reply was "you'd better watch out, they'll probably hit you again".
So while it's true that not all cops are bad, my personal experience shows me that the bad seeds aren't all that rare.
But I definitely don't feel safe about interacting with the police. From all the advice on how a cop is never your friend and you shouldn't talk to them, to all the deaths all over the internet ... how else am I supposed to feel?
I'm sure all of them are upstanding citizens and perfectly awesome when off duty. I'm sure most of them are amazing when on duty. But the overall climate and police procedures or whatever it is, sure make them seem thuggy. I believe a lot of it is because they have to be thuggy in order to stay safe.
But it doesn't make me feel safe.
> I believe a lot of it is because they have to be thuggy in order to stay safe.
Perhaps then we should be focusing our attention on improving the environments they work in? For example, cracking down on violent crimes, perhaps especially those that target police?