Michelle: Good essay. But I wonder. When I was kid my hair was cut a the barber college for 2 bits (and as the saying goes, the only difference between a good and bad haircut was about 2 weeks). My father was a police patrolman and trust me they trained a lot more than barbers.

The first police forces in the nation were motley crews and in many cases the only jobs Irish immigrants could get. Plus, the oligarchs of the time made sure they were not allowed to interfere with their elicit activities. They were only there to police the great unwashed.

Today police missions and the complexity of crime are very different, and cops are better trained than the average priest, social worker, of even cyber criminal.

However, policing and criminal enterprises have also became much more militarized. My dad, who also served in Patton's 3rd Division as a medic, knew well the different between "serve and protect" and open warfare. But, he grew to feel that the new cops he saw coming onto the force, were being chosen and prepared increasingly for the latter. Hence he almost violently opposed my brother and I following in his career. Begging the question, who and how do we get our fellow citizens to be cops, as well as well as how do we prepare them for a very dangerous as well as multi-faceted job? As an educator , I can tell you this is no mean feat.