Maybe people should occasionally reflect on what we owe to the police. In quiet suburbs many of us don't realize that criminals are only a short drive, or long walk, away. Bad men exist, very bad men. I sometimes think nice people don't understand just how bad. We read about drug murders, random killings, rapes, beatings, but for the most part they seem far away, something that happens downtown.
Downtown is a bridge away.
And quiet suburbs are where there are things to steal. Often these things are in houses owned by people helpless to defend themselves. If the police disappeared, within days bands of thugs would roam your neighborhood, taking anything they wanted. There are men out there who would shoot you or your kids for the pure meanness of it, men who, whatever color you are, would beat you to death because of it. Without the police, we'd all have to build walls and buy dogs and sit up at night with guns.