Here’s what any sane liberal would tell you:
1. Yes, cops who know and respect their community and do their jobs well are essential for a functioning society. Cops who fail to live up to their oaths are a menace.
2. No, it doesn’t make sense to privatize public security and place it in the trigger-happy hands of the racists, criminals, and domestic abusers that tend to be the most eager to water down gun laws to their own benefit.
That’s been the consistent liberal view since at least the 90s.
The conservative view on cops, on the other hand, changes with the weather and to suit whatever current political narrative.
1. During 2020 (when cops were beating up on black people all summer) it was “Blue Lives Matter.”
2. During 2021, the cops who gave their lives and limbs to defend our democracy were dubbed “Nancy Pelosi’s stormtroopers.”
3. Now, in 2022, with mass shootings and police ineptitude in preventing them dominating the headlines, it’s “cops don’t owe you shit, every man for himself.”
Bottom-line? The right-wing nutjobbery of MAGAstan is a shapeshifting beast that serves you whatever narrative feels most comfortable in the moment. In the long run, it has no plan for addressing public safety or any problem at all.
