Fine, okay, it's a blog already!

I don't have the full experience as described here but I have lived in places where the police made it very, very hard to feel you lived in a free country.

I mean, if you and a couple buddies are walking down the street and one of you have a stick, does that *really* demand two squads, guns drawn, and you with your face being not so gently pushed into the gravel?

I was thirteen years old and all we had was a stick. Apparently we got off lucky. If only that was my only brush with the police growing up.

So yeah, it isn't a hatred, and fear isn't quite the right word. Respect isn't either, at least not in the sense of looking up to someone. More in the respect you would give a pride of lions as they walked through your neighborhood.

I know good police officers. I respect the job they do. That does not, however, translate into a trust of all those who wear the badge. I just haven't had enough good interactions to justify that yet.