The other factor is that police have near blanket immunity to violate any of our rights, whether that be privacy, using the power of the state to harass individuals, and even killing or maiming people. Then the worst consequence they face is a light slap on the wrist, paid vacation and then a transfer to another Police department. Police only serve one purpose, and that is... well if you know, you know. They have a mass surveillance state in their hands, blanket immunity, and no oversight or checks and balances. People should at the very least recognize this fact.

On top of that I get super frustrated when people want to do austerity measures like cutting funding to libraries, cancer research, public health etc... but refuse to even acknowledge that the police takes up the majority of a states public funding by orders of magnitude, and often receive "surplus" military weaponry.

If anyone actually cared about govt spending, it would be extremely clear that military and police funding would come first and foremost. The reality is that these two things are heavily intertwined, and the ways in which they are corrupt are the same... but one should ask themselves why does the US police force need to be more powerful than nearly every countries military? Who is it that they are fighting and who are they fighting for?