I know that most cops help people, and I certainly am not happy about some cops dying in the WTC attack. However, no cop has ever helped me with anything. They have only hassled me for no reason. They have annoyed me, made fun of me, given my friends tickets for meaningless traffic violations that were in no way endangering anyone, and basically abused their authority on countless occasions.
The unfortunate situation is that US Law Enforcement attracts a certain type of personality, which happens to be exactly the type of personality that you DON\'T want doing that job. I think many cops have authority issues. Maybe they came from families with abusive fathers, and chaotic home lives. Therefore they feel a need to impose "ORDER" on the world in their own little way. Cops always use the argument that "they\'re risking their lives for us" as a shield whenever criticized for any wrongdoing. They blow away some guy reaching for a candy bar, and then they say "hey we\'re under a lot of pressure... we risk our lives." Well ordinary people shouldn\'t have to risk their lives by having a conversation with a cop.
I think that everyone should be required to do some public service, and law enforcement should be one of the required services. That way we would have more ordinary people working as cops, and not just the people with cop mentalities who volunteered for it.