“I always thought it meant a “thin blue line” between the bad guys and the citizens.”
i agree. i thought it stood for that protective, but understaffed police force, that separates humanity from lawlessness.
Therein lies the flaw in the concept. It completely ignores the very real concept that we, the militia of the nation is what actually protects us from lawlessness. The police are not numerous enough to actually do what it is that they claim. The vast majority of the citizens are good, decent folks who do not actually need policing on a day-to-day basis. For myself, I'd be as likely to rob or murder my fellow citizen as I would fly to the moon. However, I am a guardian of the weak every bit as much as the police (or military for that matter). The primary purpose of the police is to raise revenue, protect the government, and enforce a vast array of what is for the most part unconstitutional law. Any benefits accrued by average citizens is incidental to their mission. The supreme Court has ruled multiple times that the police have no specific duty to protect any individual citizen. That is largely the citizen's job.