I wish I had written this...

...as it sums up my feelings on this issue more succinctly and eloquently than I could ever hope to.

"I subscribe to the quintessentially American view that no person should have special rights -- everyone is equal before the law. For example, the fact that some individuals have chosen law enforcement as their profession does not make them "better" people, and deserving of special privileges. I see no reason why a police officer should be armed and I should not. The officer may have an additional, professional need to carry a firearm, but both (s)he and I have the same basic right of self-defense.
If anything, people who are drawn to law enforcement disproportionately include those with authoritarian personalities and thus likely to abuse the power they have. Due to the self-selective nature of its membership, the police as a social institution is one of the least trustworthy repositories of power. So, aside from the objection to persons, who are police, having rights I don't have, there is the objection that an institution with a monopoly on the use of force will abuse it in the service of a ruling elite. The evidence of current abuse is overwhelming. The fact that the victims are people of color is why the abuse can continue. Of course, as power expands, new victims can and will be chosen."

-Paul Hager, 2000