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Now I want to go because everyone is so vague about why it’s such a horrible place, other than bad cops, but that seems to be the standard these days.

I’ve never been arrested or charged with any crime. I’m a pretty boring middle class person.In the 10 or so encounters with police I’ve had in my life (these include traffic stops, casual encounters in businesses, where they were customers like me, and so forth), 8 of them have been unpleasant and silly.There is always someone who steps up every time a cop does something corrupt, rude, or stupid, defending “most cops” as being professional, upstanding people.This has not been my experience. I have had two positive encounters with police, and probably about 8 bad (or around that), in 4 different states.It’s not that I think we don’t need police. It’s that we need police who are, if not friendly, at least staid and businesslike, when it comes to dumb infractions like speeding. I don’t argue with police or give them a hard time. It shocks me the way belligerence leads off a conservation or encounter. Even in the cases where I was speeding, they were never for more than doing 10 MPH over the speed limit.I was detained in a public park’s parking lot, which was open, for standing in the middle of it and looking at stars, for about 30 minutes, while the cop accused me, in his words, of “maybe being one of America’s most wanted.” He seemed annoyed that I had no criminal record. Despite the park being open, campers present, and no hours of operation posted, he felt that standing in the middle of a parking lot looking up was suspicious behavior (there were no other cars in the lot, either - all were at the campsites, so the idea that I was trying to jack cars doesn’t figure into this).This is emblematic of the kind of shit I’m used to when dealing with cops.In another instance, I was driving on a minor road in the middle of the California desert in the middle of the night (Kelbaker road, through the Mojave preserve). Animals were darting across the road so I had my brights on. Now I am particularly sensitive to oncoming cars who keep their brights on, so this is something I am pretty diligent about.For 45 minutes, I encountered not a single car, and I did forget I had them on - something atypical, but it was the middle of the night in the middle of the desert.A cop passed, made a U-turn, pulled me over, and the guy started threatening me. “Uh, you had your brights on” would have been fine. Frankly, pulling over anyone for that on a long, deserted ghost road in the middle of the desert seems anal retentive.When the cop got huffy, I started smiling, thinking he was joking with me - the attitude made no sense at all. Instead he starts screaming and lecturing me.This is typical of my experiences.In the end he didn’t write me a ticket, so I guess he got what he wanted out of the situation.I don’t expect cops to be friendly or pleasant, but for god’s sake, be professional.I won’t even go into the number of times I’ve been stopped at night for walking on public sidewalks. “It’s late and someone is walking, omg he must be a CRIMMINUL!”I have short hair, dress conservatively, and am not even all that young. I don’t get it. Never been arrested, ever. Have no points on my license. Pay my taxes. Work. Don’t expect this kind of crap from law enforcement.

I don’t think $40 million is enough, they should have asked for $400 trillion.

I have never had a good experience with the police. As in an experience where the police arrested someone who I considered a danger to myself or someone I know.I have however been harassed over minor things at least a half dozen times. That just really doesn’t seem to be the way to build a public that wants to work for a safer society.

As someone who’s never been there, what are the other reasons?

Obviously it’s hard to know all the details from a single article like this but if they can show that at least some of the harassment they suffered was indeed malicious, they might have a better chance of winning something than you might think.