The only reason to respect the police is so you don't antagonize them enough to start bothering you just because they can.
Apart from that, there's no reason to grant them respect. Police - both as individuals and the entire system of policing - are not on our side. Their entire purpose is not to protect us. It's to find out how you, me and everyone else out there may be breaking a law so that they can come after you. The purpose is to keep citizens living in just enough paranoia that they will remain obedient to those in power.
For me it has been interesting to observe a shift in recent years how white people on all sides of the political spectrum have woken up to the fact they are all of our enemies - not just us people of colour or other minorities (such as economic). The right watched how police worked against them during, for example, the convoy protests. The left has seen how easily the police will go after them for supporting anything from homelessness to trans rights. Or it can be as banal as a bored cop deciding to ticket a streetcar just because they can. They don't really care whether the public trusts them or not because at the end of the day they can still arrest you, incarcerate you or put an end to your existence with a pull off a trigger.
Apart from that, there's no reason to grant them respect. Police - both as individuals and the entire system of policing - are not on our side. Their entire purpose is not to protect us. It's to find out how you, me and everyone else out there may be breaking a law so that they can come after you. The purpose is to keep citizens living in just enough paranoia that they will remain obedient to those in power.
For me it has been interesting to observe a shift in recent years how white people on all sides of the political spectrum have woken up to the fact they are all of our enemies - not just us people of colour or other minorities (such as economic). The right watched how police worked against them during, for example, the convoy protests. The left has seen how easily the police will go after them for supporting anything from homelessness to trans rights. Or it can be as banal as a bored cop deciding to ticket a streetcar just because they can. They don't really care whether the public trusts them or not because at the end of the day they can still arrest you, incarcerate you or put an end to your existence with a pull off a trigger.