For me it has always been the exact opposite.
I've had tazers pointed at me for having paraphernalia. A separate incident the cop thought the slide for my water pipe was a crack pipe. I agree that they're not as bad in general as the hype would have you believe, at least not in my experience. It is way more apparent here as oppose to all the other democratic nations which is not cool

Shit dude, having tazers pointed at you for something like that? Yeah, one guy I knew was pulled over for some traffic violation and he ended up getting tazered for some stupid reason.

I have very good conversations with the cops and all I have to do is casually toss in that I'm a veteran and can probably get off with a warning.

I got out of a reckless driving ticket because I was in uniform.

Man, I don't even know what to say about this.

A lot of cops become overtly reactionary to the fuck you attitude that so many people hold for them, which creates several of these cases of police brutality. In my experience--and the experiences of several peers--when acting like a respectful adult, the police men will be just as respectful back to you. I've been on acid and mushrooms, in a state that aesthetically looks like you are twacked out of your goddamn mind, and spoken to police through the hallucinations and insanity, dropping "sirs" and acting respectful. May I mention that this was at two thirty a.m. in a suburban neighborhood. I got off scot free with a plethora of various other drugs in my pocket, and the cop who stopped me waved goodbye in his car with a smile. Either I stroked this man's ego (and the police from my other less dramatic situations) in the right way, or my theory is correct.

It's totally unfair to generalize about US police. A lot are too brutal, a lot of local cop agencies seem to accept too much brutality but saying US police are, in general, too brutal is a bit like saying Muslims are generally terrorists. We take the good with the bad.

A lot of people in every profession are assholes.
Would a thread called "Lying American Attorneys" be any fun? No. How about "Unethical American Businessmen"? No. Both of these subsets of professionals are givens. Same with the segment of cops who abuse their power.

It is interesting to see the responses in this thread though. Reactions to citizens do seem to be based on the officers' personal biases. For me, every time I've been stopped or questioned by a cop none have ever given me any trouble but maybe that's because when they do, I'm an acquiescent charming whiteguy.

Right, right.

I've never had a bad run-in with the police. I don't know anyone that had. But I've seen countless videos of police overstepping their boundaries, or trampling on citizens rights, etc. and they infuriate me every time.

The three examples I think of when I think police brutality are:

UC Davis police spraying protesters sitting in a circle on the grass with bear mace/pepperspray repeatedly, from the Occupy Davis protest this last fall. That's where I went to college, and if I was still there, I would certainly have been with them and gotten maced. Made me so mad. And then the reaction of some of the public was "They deserved it". For what? Sitting, making a peaceful protest? "They were blocking people's path" No they weren't, they were sitting on the quad. I went there, I know the place. It's a huge one block by one block grass field with a walkway down the middle. There's so much room to go around that that argument falls flat in an instant if you know the place. "They shouldn't have been protesting." Ok STFU, you're ignorant. Sorry, reliving old arguments.

The Thomas Jefferson monument "dancing" arrests, from page one of this thread.

and

Police raided a guys home, and shot and killed his dog because it was barking and running towards them. They had the wrong house. The dog wasn't a vicious type, and it was probably going to run up and smell them, barking as dogs do to raise awareness to the owners and possibly scare off an unwelcome, surprise intruder. I hate hearing about pets getting hurt by the police, especially when they are at the wrong place. I would rather a dog bite the officer and pay for his treatment/bill than have the dog get shot. There are plenty of similar stories about how police handle animals, and I remember another incident in Oakland, CA where a dog chained up in the backyard was shot and killed, causing a community uproar and increased animal awareness training.
Makes me afraid for the pit bull in my house. If the police EVER come in, he will most certainly be shot. And he's a sweetheart. The first thing he does when someone comes in that he doesn't know is bark, run up and jump on them, smell them, and then lick their face. Even strangers. It's often startling, but he's just a giant puppy. He's never bitten anyone, ever. But if the police happened upon him, they'd certainly shoot him for being himself. Police need to work on how they deal with animals/pets in general.

Are you dismissing me by saying that^?

I understand if you are. But know that I've seen many of my peers be fucked over by police. Some reasonably and some not.

Just please take good care to protect your dog. I care more about it than I care about law-breaking people (justly or not). At least people usually have some choice in the matter. Their dogs never do.