I've said before, though, that this is not the way citizens of a free country should expect to be treated by their police officers; it is the way citizens of an occupied country should expect to be treated by the occupying army. Do exactly what you're told and follow orders to the letter, because if you don't, you will probably be shot and killed. This is no way for a free country to be organized.
On Saturday night, I was stopped by a police officer. He walked over to my car, told me that one of my headlights was out, and politely asked me to follow him to a nearby testing centre. A few moments later he came back and told me that he'd just checked my records and seen that I'd only just got the car MOT tested (a British thing, not sure if you do it elsewhere but cars legally have to be safety tested annually) and that I needn't bother so could I just make sure I got the bulb changed. At no point was I in fear of my life if I didn't do exactly as he said, or even didn't appear to him to be doing exactly as he said. I wasn't afraid that my autistic son, who was in the car with me, might do something unpredictable that would result in him being shot, or, for some inexplicable reason, both of us. I just had a brief and friendly interaction with a public servant who was doing his job of making sure the law-abiding public are safe. That's what the police are there for; to uphold the law and protect the safety of the law-abiding.
If, in the course of their duties, the police themselves have become a significant threat to life and liberty, and the general population is OK with them being such a threat, then something has gone tragically wrong.
Dave