When I was young, I remember a lot of boys, dreaming about becoming policemen to protect people from evil and violence and to be guardians of peace and order. The job police do is worth respect, which goes without saying. But nowadays the image of a strong policeman facing danger and protecting the life of simple citizens is darkened by a great amount of scandals with drugs and power abuse police have been involved in. There are a lot of stories that pop up here and there, where guys in blue uniform appear not as protectors, but as criminals. There are a lot of facts confirming that the behavior of the police very often is inexcusable: they can harass or beat people, take bribes and humiliate citizens for no reason. So instead of respect, people feel fear and disgust to the police in general, which does not do good to the patriotism or national pride for the state we are living in.
The most awful thing about police misconduct is that it is very difficult, almost impossible, for a simple guy to prove that a policeman acted like a criminal, which makes the situation even worth.
So, why is the situation like this? Why is this honorable profession giving birth to even bigger number of criminal cases? I think there are two main explanations to it: not very careful psychological selection of those who want to join the police and small salaries for those who are already there. The first reason leads to violence among the policemen and the second explains perfectly a high level of corruption. If these two problems are solved, who knows, maybe our children will dream of becoming policemen again and they will have good reasons for it.