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Police, just like doctors, politicians, teachers and priests have the same distribution of altruists, criminals and sheep. The bell curve is everywhere.
Teachers are supposed to be good, but a few have seduced students. Are they to be lumped together and all labeled as bad? Of course not. The same goes for the police and clergy.
Now, having established that the police are subject to the same distribution of personalities as any other population, the issue becomes the concept of police.
In this regard, yes, we need to police our own species, because of the same reason: there are sociopaths in society that have predatory natures. The police protect the rest of us from these sociopaths. Otherwise, we would end up like Tijuana or Rosarito Mexico, with shootouts, robberies and rapes running amok.
How long would society be kept from chaos and violence without order? Life would become short and brutish, as the stronger take from their weaker neighbors.
So, having established that the police are needed, the next issue becomes how much order is needed? What is the threshold of criminal vs. accepted behavior? This is where we as humans run into problems. One day marijuana possession is worthy of being sent to prison, and then it is legislated into a 100 dollar misdemeanor with a ticket and no jail time. The driver of a truck leading the police on a reckless chase through a city is justifiably thrown to the ground and handcuffed, but the passengers sitting in the back of the truck are thrown to the ground and beaten with clubs. Where is the threshold of sufficient cause vs. excessive power?
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