what do ordinary, everyday police officers do?
Herewith a random sampling from blotters, which gives you an idea:

When a Tonawanda motorcyclist struck a parked car, police were called. They found the driver sitting atop the bike, smelling of alcohol. When asked if he had
been drinking, he replied, “Way too much.”

Asked to check on a Town of Tonawanda resident’s welfare, upon entering the subject’s apartment police found several marijuana plants. The woman begged police not to confiscate them because “they were not big enough to smoke yet.”

An unidentified woman reported she left her purse in her unlocked vehicle as she used a restroom in Ellicott Creek Park. After she returned to her vehicle and drove away, she realized her purse was missing. When she returned to the park later that evening she was chased away by skunks.

A Berkeley road resident was concerned about a
camera she found on the side of her house that she hadn’t
installed. The item the complainant thought was a camera
was the transmitter used by the water authority to read
the meter.

A citizen reported a one-legged turkey in the middle of
Willow Ridge Drive. The complainant said the bird was
unable to move to the side, but it chased the patrol car
that responded.

Patrolmen extinguished a fire that started inside of a
dishwasher on Princeton Place.

A truck was reported stolen from a Clarence residence.
Officers determined it had been repossessed.

A Fiddlers Green resident reported she had locked
herself with her newborn baby in the bathroom because
there were two bats in the house and she was unable to
get them out on her own.

These are a few of the things that come across a typical sergeant’s desk in the course of a week. There are other incidents, of course. But I thought it was time to remind us all of what cops really are.

Neighbors.
Working-class men and women, much like you and me.
Some belong to unions. Many don’t. Some have decent pay, good benefits, a regular schedule; days off and paid health care.

But increasingly, they’ll have some combination of the above, only not all of it.

Here in Texas if you’re a DPS trooper (corporal or below) and married, and you have two or more children, unless your spouse has a higher-paying job than you do, you’re eligible for food stamps, and your kids are eligible (until it’s killed) for SCHIP, or Medicaid if they’re under 18 months old.

I’ll be back, off and on, talking about what I’ve seen and what I know. But in the meanwhile, please try and remember that as much as we all see Teh Government as something to fear, distrust, loathe, and despise …

That guy in the cop car, or that gal walking the beat, probably agree with us about more of our views than not. Maybe s/he can’t come right out and say so at work, and for certain s/he can’t attend a rally in uniform; but there are people inside those uniforms.

People, a lot of times, worth knowing. Not so much enemies of us all, as friends we haven’t met yet.