"Like marines, cops are to some extent anyhow _taught_ to see themselves as as a morally superior elite within a corrupt culture."
I spent a few years around cops myself, being for a time a soft cop, tree fuzz, a state park ranger. We had to go to "cop-school" -- a six week training course in narcotics, traffic enforcement, fire fighting, crowd control, gun use, etc. All our teachers were cops: narcs, CHP, etc. The two things that came through loud and clear from being around them as, marginally, one of them were
1) Cops have absolute discretion. They can do anything and get away with practically anything. Keep this in mind when dealing with them.
2) Cops divide the world into two camps: cops and non-cops. I don't think they see themselves as morally superior at all. The ones I knew, for example, freely used and trafficked in drugs. But you're either a brother cop or you're an enemy. Period. This has some advantages; for example, while I had my peace officer badge next to my driver's license, I never got a ticket. Got pulled over for speeding once and running a stop sign once. They looked at my badge and told me to "Take it easy and have a nice day."
Joanna