If you look at all the links on this thread to the moral panic various cops have been goaded into spewing, it's not like they aren't doing their part to make Apple's point.
The cops have a point. I don't think the actual encryption is as big a deal now as people are making it out to be, but Apple is setting a precedent when they say "we're doing this so we don't have to comply with warrants" instead of saying "we're doing this to make our customers safer". Apple just sparked a debate (as much as I hate that term). If the cops don't make a stink out of it now and point out the necessity of warrants, things may likely get out of hand somewhere down the road.