Yes, fishing industry is 16 times more dangerous than being a cop. Having been a non-skilled construction worker and knowing a retired miner, you can definitely make more money by those jobs than being a cop in most places. Again, not the point.
Much like you did at one time, L, I've been taking the King's shilling for 11 years now, and I found out you can fix more on the inside than you can on the out. See my reply to "circles". No one calls fishermen, miners, cab drivers and so on to help them when the going gets rough. Yeah, most of you don't need the help because your self made men and women able to defend yourselves. And I realize that most cops end up being used for all kinds of crappy work. But most people are not self made, cannot defend themselves, cannot fix their own problems. And those unsolved issues end up being a burden to all of us self made people. But a good police department can stop that ahead of time, and that is why THEY, not fishermen, cabbies and such, are paid to do. I know cops end up writing senseless tickets and generating monies for politicians most of you did not bother to vote for. I'm not willing to just sit back and complain about the problems, I'm going to make an effort to fix them. Service to your country and community does not end when DD-214 is signed.
I have little sympathy for those who complain about the pay and danger when they knew what it was going to be like when they got into it in the first place. Also, by and large, being a cop is considerably safer than many other professions that deal with the public on a daily basis because you at least have the ability to defend yourself without having to face the same level of risk that would face Joe Citizen for defending himself. Given the way the legal system works and the almost absolute immunity given to just about anyone working for the government no matter who is really, I don't think it's a particularly dangerous line of work to get in to.