Bah, cops differ from place to place, that much is obvious.

here in my country, for instance, they are not trusted. They are a bunch of corrupt morons, that's why - they take advantage of people, extort, and you can pay them 5 bucks for them to pretend they didn't see you parking where you shouldn't, things like that.

But when I was in Japan, for instance, it was completely different. Once I was walking alone at 11:30 PM and these two cops were genuinely concerned about my safety and offered to walk me home. I was scared shitless because, had it been my country, I would've been raped, probably. But that's the wonders of a First World country like Japan.

But whether they are bad or good, they are needed. Without ANYTHING (cops or soldiers or whatever) to enforce some kind of law, we would fall into annarchy and that would be ten times worse than cops. It would go down to "Who is the strongest?" or, in this modern world, "Who has the most guns?". Can you say you'd really want to live like that? For the sake of balance, forces like the police are needed.