I used to feel this way. What I found is, that is only the case if you get the right cop. However I also found that even great cops make mistakes. Great people get bad or no training. Great departments accidentally hire mentally ill people. Then, there are also bad departments, and bad people.

My story: I got a motorcycle when I was 17, because I could not afford both a car and my own apartment. Within a year I had been pulled over at least 20 times. I would rarely speed or break the law, but it did happen. My bike was a small engine 1970s bike. I fought so many bullshit tickets. Sometimes the would have me stopped for an hour to see if my bike was stolen. I decided to buy a car. Before I could get straight to the dmv with my new car, I got pulled over. All in all I payed 2500 dollars in tickets in one year. Not once did I talk back. I went along with everything. I fought the tickets in court that I thought I didn't deserve, and basically got screwed for all of them, but hey I didn't want to make them mad at me or give them reasons. I was raised to respect law enforcement.

Then one day I got pulled over. I was obeying the law even going 5 under. I had a job doing construction and I was on my way to work. Over the last 12 months I had been learning, and buying tools for my work from home depot with every check I got. Things were tight, but I was just making it. This cop pulls me out of my car. It is 7 degrees out. I have a t-shirt on, my coat is on the passenger seat. He gives me the third degree about where I am going where I was. He is spitting on me with ever word he speaks. Telling me that if I move a muscle he will "end me". He tells me he smells weed. I tell him politely I don't smoke or drink ever, so he must be mistaken. He asks me to search my car. I am stupid 18 year old. I say yes, I have nothing to hide. He cuffs me and sits me in front of my car. I ask for my coat. He denies my request. I am in the middle of nowhere on the side of a freeway freezing my balls off. My lips are purple. He is tearing the plastic interior pieces out of my car. He starts using my tools to dismantle my car. I start to object. He gets in my face and pushes me onto my back in the snow. I can't feel my hands. My ears feel like they are going to fall off. He tells me, he knows I am a thief. I have no record whatsoever (besides traffic tickets). He takes my work tools. Tells me he knows they are stolen. I protest, he tells me he will take me to jail. I am pissed, but I don't think I will live much longer without a coat. I comply. He takes the cuffs off. I drive off. I get to work, and I have no tools. I spend 10 minutes trying to fix my car without tools the heater on full blast. The headliner in my car is hanging down. On my way home I get a ticket for obstructed view.

I decide to learn to do what lawyers do when they are pulled over. Invoke and protect rights and film. You never know when you will get a cop who will use his word against yours to give you a felony, because a police department hired the wrong person, or a good cop just got divorced, etc.

Most people here have a story like mine or worse. We now champion accountability. We just want everyone accountable to the same laws. This is what our country was founded on.