Cops have a stressful, often life-threatening job, no doubt. But so do a lot of people. My family has a history of working in psychiatric lock-ups with extremely violent mentally ill and developmentally abnormal patients, most of whom are being held because of murders and rapes they’ve committed (usually of their own families), and who would murder you if they had the chance/inclination to do so, because they simply don’t know any better. The nurses don’t carry firearms, they’re trained with a few restraining grappling technique and a lot of deescalation tactics. They don’t even have tasers. Put an armed cop in that situation and you’d have a ward full of corpses within a few days. Hell, put a regular prison guard in that situation and you’d have a similar outcome. But my family members aren’t MMA experts, and have never been [seriously] injured in their job. They’ve been properly trained, that’s all. Cops are trained like they’re being shipped off to 'Nam in 1969 to fight an unseen, non-uniformed enemy.

At least they have an AI-free option, as annoying as it is to have to opt into it.

On a related note, it’s hilarious to me that the Ecosia search engine has AI built in. Like, I don’t think planting any number of trees is going to offset the damage AI has done and will do to the planet.