Why are people so down on the police?

You are clearly not one of life's great thinkers, sorry.

Your whole soapbox statement is basically like saying:

Vanilla Icecream. It doesn't get nearly enough praise. The only thing you hear about vanilla icecream is bad experiences. I think that people slagging off vanilla icecream are just trying to be cool.

What I would ask is have YOU had any good experiences with the police? If so why aren't you highlighting them or providing any firsthand experience? If not why the fuck are you trying to start such a holier than thou 'argument' that really doesn't have much substance other than vague generalities or personal opinion? If you yourself haven't got any examples of good policing, then why do you expect others to have any?

Clearly negative service in any walk of life attracts more comment-you can go into a whole load of social reasoning for why people dislike the police as people on here have, and you then move the goalposts to purely cycle related examples-which really, isn't the point-the police are not a purely cycle related entity, are they? If you really think the Police deserve more good press why not start a 'Good Police Experience' thread for people to contribute? Or maybe just volunteer giving them comforting massages and polishing their shoes to show your appreciation on the weekend?

Go stick a thermometer up your arse and try operating the thing between your ears a bit more.

I do have personal experiences of good policing, but I chose ones specifically around cycling from the forum as this is a cycling forum. So, the goalposts haven't shifted the cycling relationship is implicit.

I have thought about starting a 'good policing thread' or similar for people to share their experiences - good idea.

I believe that the examples I have provided do demonstrate that when there's good news about the police (cracking down on cycle theft etc.) there is very little positive feedback in comparison to the amount of whinging that goes on about the police generally here.

Please don't resort to personal insults, it's really not neccessary.