We used to have a phrase (at least we northerners) to describe a simple, no stress employment - "a bobby's job". When we were children policemen were the ultimate symbol of authority; if a bobby told you to stop doing something you stopped - at least until he went off.
Changes in attitude in society and a respect by the police themselves for the rights of the public mean that being a guardian of the peace is no longer what it was.
Here in France the "flics" have long been held in an ambivalent point of view. We were advised long ago by a senior gendarme not to engage in arguments with policemen who had more powers than you think. They are not identified by name and only recently by number; they can sue you on a personal basis if you "insult the uniform" and the CRS is famously brutal. But they are there to protect society from crooks, sort out difficult personal conflicts, pick up the pieces after disturbances and riots and in recent years to guard against terrorist attacks.
So far in 2019 some 40 officers have committed suicide, this is more than usual, though agents always have a higher suicide rate than the population as a whole. No studies have been made as to why this is the case but possibly the unsocial hours, the stress of the job and family break up are more prevalent than in other professions.
It is pretty difficult for the police unions and the officers themselves to hear shouts of "go kill yourself" during Saturday's usual GJ demonstrations and to see in Caussade on Sunday a van with a large notice suggesting that those injured in the demonstrations were in some way compensated by police suicides.
