While visiting New York with my family I am always pleased at how well the NYPD represents the city. Mounted officers let the kids pet the horse and pose for selfies, some officers driving by flashed the lights for my kids once and smiled and waved, really great stuff. This is also the reality of officers in tourist-rich Manhattan. I'm keenly aware that the customer service element deteriorates significantly as you move into the outer boroughs. My philosophy is simple; I assume you're an OK person until you show me otherwise. You can have political, religious, social or philosophical views that clash with my own. I don't care. As a matter of fact, the Navy chaplain who married my first wife and I was roasted pretty heavily on the Daily Show. He's a political douche and I believe he's on the wrong side of history. But he did a fabulous service and really put his heart into it. Nice guy. I'd have a beer with him but I would never vote for him in a million years. I'm genuinely appreciative of anyone who wears a uniform in service to our community (military, police, fire, postal service, park rangers, sanitation department, all of them) though I'm keenly aware that some people wearing uniforms are jerks. Again, I'm going to assume you are a good guy until you give me reason to believe otherwise. It's absolutely a good thing to be critical of police misconduct. It's not a good thing to just be an ass toward the police. Those are two very different things with two very different desired outcomes.
"It's absolutely a good thing to be critical of police misconduct. It's not a good thing to just be an ass toward the police. Those are two very different things with two very different desired outcomes." Exactly!!!!!!!!