Long Time Cop,
Listen to what you're saying. "a lot of cops have bad attitudes...if you don't have one when you start, you will be lucky if you don't when you finish...I was lucky to not be a drunk, wife beater or generally just an a@@hole...cops are a necessary evil" So cops usually have bad attitudes, drink heavily, are abusive ahole's and are evil.
And some of you wonder why cops are so universally hated? Too many of you guys have lost your souls to a bad profession.
In terms of interactions with officers on duty, being a white guy I've never had a problem. My issue has been when hanging out with acquaintances and hearing the stories of an off-duty cop (Orange County, CA) who says his department will use their tazers at the drop of a hat and unnecessarily so, "it's a rush, but they usually deserve it anyway." He was being serious.
Another guy I worked with was a retired cop, also from OC, who had to go into early retirement for medical reasons due to entering a warehouse that was a meth lab and he inhaled too much of something that was in there. The stories he told me were horrible, both in terms of what happens TO cops, but even more so what cops DO to others. He said one of the biggest problems is not just that power corrupts, but steroids are abused very heavily in the profession and that leads to a lot of bad judgement calls when in high pressure situations.
You seem to have a good head on your shoulders. Thanks for sharing your side of it.