[grasshopperpurp]

>Nonsense, the police were not created with that goal in mind. The Romans had police, and so does every other normal society, even the ones that are not dictatorships.

So, every 'normal' society doesn't have a ruling class that uses police to protect its assets from the working class?

>Also, you've just made the leap from 'secret police' to 'plainclothes detectives' to 'any police'.

Don't see the contention here.

>If you let the regular police get away with enough bad stuff over time the good guys will leave the force and more bad elements will enter. Keep this going for a couple of decades and you get Baltimore.

Replace Baltimore with 99% of the police agencies in the US (can't speak for other countries), and I'd agree.