Well, they've been armed with military equipment.

Somewhere along the way, they swapped out "protect and serve" for "law and order."

Leaving aside the whole issue of systemic racism (not to say it's irrelevant), I get it. The insane gun laws here mean that a beat cop may encounter a hopped-up, angry nutjob with an AK-47. It's not a simple problem to solve, but I do think we have tended to view the problem as either-or: either we arm our police to the teeth to counter what they're seeing on the streets, or we turn them all into social workers. I don't think there is a simple solution, and the solution won't be black and white.