Combo of both. I spent ~8 years working on EMS/911 systems and interfacing with law enforcement fairly regularly. I also worked for one of my parents businesses which built (software) law enforcement systems in the 80's and 90's. I know quite a number of very good people who are LEOs who work hard to help their community and care about what they do. And I'd say the vast majority of people go into being a LEO so they can do good for their community, not because they are dicks (but like any profession some are). Three of the people I know that are officers in the recent past have told me personally the training has gotten too focused on militaristic tactics and on physical enforcement (threat neutralization to prevent officer harm). Even pointing out the types of surplus military gear their departments are purchasing etc. So that's one of my primary sources for that specific comment. The news seems to confirm much of it once you remove the sensationalism most news outlets like to put out there, but look at the gear and training tactics they are using, much of it comes from the military.
My own personal interactions have varied over the years, but have been net positive, that said, I am a 40 something entrepreneur/professional who is white. However, even with that, I have had more than a few run ins where a LEO tried to use intimidation and threats instead of conversation to understand what is going on. To be super clear, I am not against them doing their jobs in any way, I know their job is hard and I first hand know (from EMS work) how hard it is when you are dealing with people who abuse the system. But as an example,. less then 2 months ago I had a cop in a neighboring city screaming threats at me and stopping my vehicle for driving around a car accident. What made it interesting is I was following the instructions of the Sgt that was directing traffic who had told me to go around a specific way (which I was doing at less then 10 MPH as he said proceed slowly). My luck is I knew the Sgt could hear this tantrum and the Sgt came over to put a stop to it. Sadly though, this was after the cop had already asked me if I was "fucking stupid" and threatened me with arrest, but I hadn't even said a word yet. When the Sgt walked over he told me to have a nice day and go ahead and made a point of saying that I did nothing wrong. In one example, I saw the good LEO and the dickhead. So that is a recent personal interaction with a bad cop, who I don't think is in the majority, but nonetheless he is out there and is getting training that focuses on threat neutralization instead of calm deescalation. I mean he had every right to stop me and say hey, wth dude why are you driving through here, and I could've said I was told to and that'd be it, he could/would confirm and all is good. No need for the crazy talk.
My overall feeling is the vast majority of cops are good humans doing a hard job where they deal with mainly societies troubled people all day long. So when you train them on threat neutralization or in other militaristic tactics it gives them muscle memory of the wrong nature. Even good ones. And for the bad ones it only intensifies their ego and trains them to be better at their aggression.
My own personal interactions have varied over the years, but have been net positive, that said, I am a 40 something entrepreneur/professional who is white. However, even with that, I have had more than a few run ins where a LEO tried to use intimidation and threats instead of conversation to understand what is going on. To be super clear, I am not against them doing their jobs in any way, I know their job is hard and I first hand know (from EMS work) how hard it is when you are dealing with people who abuse the system. But as an example,. less then 2 months ago I had a cop in a neighboring city screaming threats at me and stopping my vehicle for driving around a car accident. What made it interesting is I was following the instructions of the Sgt that was directing traffic who had told me to go around a specific way (which I was doing at less then 10 MPH as he said proceed slowly). My luck is I knew the Sgt could hear this tantrum and the Sgt came over to put a stop to it. Sadly though, this was after the cop had already asked me if I was "fucking stupid" and threatened me with arrest, but I hadn't even said a word yet. When the Sgt walked over he told me to have a nice day and go ahead and made a point of saying that I did nothing wrong. In one example, I saw the good LEO and the dickhead. So that is a recent personal interaction with a bad cop, who I don't think is in the majority, but nonetheless he is out there and is getting training that focuses on threat neutralization instead of calm deescalation. I mean he had every right to stop me and say hey, wth dude why are you driving through here, and I could've said I was told to and that'd be it, he could/would confirm and all is good. No need for the crazy talk.
My overall feeling is the vast majority of cops are good humans doing a hard job where they deal with mainly societies troubled people all day long. So when you train them on threat neutralization or in other militaristic tactics it gives them muscle memory of the wrong nature. Even good ones. And for the bad ones it only intensifies their ego and trains them to be better at their aggression.