I like Penn Jilette's take on this. To paraphrase: "If you are religious and you are not trying to proselytize to me, how can you say you love me?"
I think that's an excellent take. If I sincerely believed in a religion that taught that non-believers were horriblly punished in the afterlife, either through torture via literal hellfire or simply through some form of spiritual isolation, I'd like to think that I'd be a good enough person to try and "save" people. I've never gotten angry at someone for earnestly preaching to me.
The religious people I really can't stand are the ones who try to force their religious doctrine on others through criminal legislation, violence, or social alienation, use their religion like a cudgel to put non-believers and other religious groups in their place (e.g. where the phrase "I'll pray for you" is really code for "go fuck yourself, heathen."), or who loudly proclaim their belief in divine intervention through prayer for "the worthy" but seemingly can't be bothered to pray for anyone besides themselves, their political candidates or their favorite sports teams.
This however is definitely controversial. I would be wary of trusting police for your own sake. It is dangerous to have a positive view of people who do not have a positive view of you, who have a great deal of unchecked power, and who can turn on you on a dime and get away with murdering you.
I can certainly appreciate where people are coming from, especially POC who've historically suffered under aggressive and racist police and continue to do so. I've just had different life experiences which have lead me to appreciate the police (in general).
I've also had a job for the past 5 years that's exposed me to a lot of the good work cops do in the mental health sector. While I realize that's anecdotal, it's hard if not impossible to be exposed to dozens of situations in which cops have saved peoples' lives, or deescalated dangerous situations without resorting to violence, and think poorly of them. They usually don't get in the paper for saving lives; only for snuffing them out.
Again though, I admit I'm biased based on my rl experience with police. I'm aware of, and can acknowledge, that bias.
