[faboo]

The thing of it, to me, is that policemen carry an array of weapons. Mace, a taser, a tonfa (a nightstick), and a gun. A person that heavily armed is a force to be reckoned with. Intimidating, deserving of fear.

If you're the man with the gun, you must go out of your way to be respectable and approachable, or you will not be - you'll just be a man with a gun.

[malnourish]

Absolutely. That is their job as our servants (civil servants, that is). The cop is supposed to be more respectful and willing, and they should be working on that. They are people though, and as such we should afford them some respect, not for the weapons they carry, but the way the act.

[smallblacksun]

If it were just fear, people wouldn't hurl abuse at police officers, they would just be quiet. In fact, the amount of abuse that police take shows that most people don't fear them (not that they should).