Normal adults don’t need anyone to “keep the peace.”
The police aren’t there to enforce compliance with the law, but to enforce adjudication of the law. Their job is to apprehend and protect an accused criminal so he can be tried by a jury instead of hunted down by an armed posse.
You make a fair point. My argument is more based on officer discretion. Not every law has to be rigorously and sternly enforced. Think about simply keeping the peace, too.
Here’s a rather minor example. I recently watched a body-cam video of a cop approaching a guy who was sitting on a park bench. The guy was burning a memorial candle, as he had just lost a friend in the area. He wasn’t bothering anybody. He was being peaceful.
What did the cop do? He decided to enforce some law, and harass the sh*t out of the poor guy. Let’s see some ID! You are burning an open container in public without a permit!
I wish this was just an isolated, one-in-a-million incident. But it’s not. That guy will probably be anti-cop for years to come. And I can’t blame him.