The Fuzz

Yesterday I had two strange experiences involving police officers.
The first was in a line at a store- Two cops were in line in a non-commital way; they wandered off to pick things up and backed up to consider things. I stepped in front of one of them and then apologized, as one does when one has mistaken the nature of the line. One officer protested and actually grabbed me by both shoulders and pulled me into line in front of him. It stunned me for a minute, even though it seemed like a nice gesture. Forcibly moving strangers is not okay. Forcibly moving small women is fairly easy, and therefore especially not okay. Did he assume it would be fine because he's a cop? You'd think he would know better.
The second encounter inspired the image: later that same night there was an angry drunk outside the train station. I was reading on a park bench and he had taken the adjoining bench when three cops came to confront him. One asked me if he had been yelling obscenities and I admitted he had been. A second starting asking the drunk basic I.D. questions, and then told him they would help him to a place to sleep for the night. The drunk hesitated, and the third officer suddenly burst out yelling, telling the drunk to get on the train and get out of town. I had never thought about that before: that a cop's obligation is not to the people they encounter but to the neighborhood they patrol. That thought made me uneasy, and so did the yelling. Cop #3 shouted the drunk away into the station's door and, as a parting shot cried "and take a F*CKING SHOWER!"
Even as a law-abiding citizen, none of my experiences with police have been positive, so I'll just add these to the list. I find cops to have questionable judgment. Perhaps that's why they're called "The Fuzz."