Among Americans, there is the perception of the unarmed policeman in the U.K. But in London, one will see policemen walking around on a normal day with a submachine gun, something never seen here unless there's something like a mass shooting. But we have them all the time.
There are other differences between the U.S. and the U.K, although not much more than, say, the difference in the North and the South. For one thing, although we technically speak the same language, mostly hidden in print exchanges like this, it can be difficult to understand one another when we speak the way speak at home in the kitchen. Some other English speaking countries are even worse. But eventually you catch on to the dialect and you can understand one another. There are still a lot of words and phrases that are different but there are also generational differences like that. I used to have trouble understanding my mother-in-law sometimes even though we grew up just about a hundred miles (and 25 years) apart. But there can be surprising differences in one small town. The old expression in the United States is growing up on the wrong side of the tracks. I haven't heard that expression in a while.
I do agree, however, that law enforcement has changed in my lifetime (but so has everything else). In the 1950s, if you were, say, burning trash where or when you weren't supposed to, a policeman might drive by, in his black and white sedan, wearing a white shirt and armed with a six-inch revolver carried in a swivel holster, and ask you to put out the fire. And you probably knew the policeman by name. These days, a police man with pepper spray, a high-capacity automatic pistol, a radio on his shoulder, combat boots, and a belt pouch with rubber gloves, might be tempted to give you a ticket and maybe even arrest you if you looked at him the wrong way. He would also be built like a professional wrestler.
Our individual opinions are always based on our personal experiences. Some people's opinions, it seems, are merely what they are told to think and have no connection to reality.
I've had to call the police a couple of times for one reason or another but maybe someday I'll call a hippie instead.
