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> In Europe in particular, police officers are not such an enemy.

Everywhere in the world the police are your enemy. They exist as the manifestation of a state's domestic violence.

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In a democracy, the state shouldn't be your enemy either. The state should represent you, as should the police.

Shouldn't, but can't ever otherwise be.

I strongly reject that defeatist attitude.

By definition the police are the enemy of certain citizens.

But ideally only those who actively choose to have the police as their enemy.

So we should abolish police worldwide? Or is there maybe some nuanced angle there that the state might be operating on your behalf?

They're operating on your behalf when they're talking to other people.

When they're talking to you, they're your enemy.

I just don't think this 'enemy' rhetoric is all that accurate. Dealing with the police is like handling volatile high explosives; sometimes you have to do it, but they definitely have their purpose, but you'd be a fool to handle the interaction carelessly. Reducing that to merely 'enemy' conflates them with harmful things that serve no purpose at all. Like stupidity.

Seems a lot like a typical prisoners dilemma. Everyone treating each other hostile would give a worse overall outcome, but individually it seems like the best strategy.

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