Is cops being evil/lazy/incompetent a USA specific thing, or is it the same everywhere in the world?

the big thing that's different about american cops is the amount of education they get. here, even patrolling police have a university level education in social sciences, ethics, law, medicine etc. it's a three year degree of which six months are spent as a trainee. AFAIK, some states in the us have like half a year of training total.
also, due to an event in the 30s, the use of police on worker suppression is deeply ingrained.
there is no doubt that they protect the interest of capital, but they are tightly regulated. also i'm not saying the regulations automatically make them competent.
- They're also trained to deescalate.
  I remember a while ago somebody posted a video of an Italian cop talking a guy who was beating his girlfriend into giving himself up and the Americans were completely baffled that he hadn't just shot him.

My impression is that it is certainly a lot worse in the US than here in Germany. I imagine the abundance of guns means that being a cop is fucking dangerous, which means they will get uneasy in conflicts quite logically, but also that it's not exactly a job you go for, if you have aspirations in life. I mean, why would anyone voluntarily become a cop in the US, if not to abuse your power?
- I think Germany is known for serious police. In fact, I half remember a joke about that... something about the perfection of a British Cop, a German car, and an French Chef -- compared to the misery of a German Cop, a French car, and a British Chef.
  Obviously not funny in the mangling, but the joke wasn't that German cops were bad, just not the generally pleasant 'fair cop' stereotype of Brits.
  Personally,. the stereotypes that have stuck in my head are: that low-level officials in India (including cops) can be bribed to look the other way for minor things, Nordic cops are well trained in de-escalation and restraint techniques where no one gets injured, Brit cops might be fair or might be racist, but the laws give better protection to citizens, and that German cops are stern, and will rigidly follow and enforce all laws and rules... generally. Not sure if it is true or not, but I've also heard that German cops will fuck you up if you give them reason, but you'd really have to give them reason.
  
  German cops will fuck you up if you give them reason, but you’d really have to give them reason
  Lol I saw a video of some dude doing a nazi salute and nearby cops tackled him 🤣
  
  I think Germany is known for serious police
- Being a pizza delivery driver is more dangerous than being a cop in the USA.
- Heh, it may seem like the risks of being shot as a cop are high. And I guess it is, compared to something like being an office worker.
  But cops shoot way more citizens than shoot them, and they kill way more as well. It could be argued that those are defensive shootings, but, well, we know they aren't all justified at all. And enough of those police killing citizens are against entirely unarmed people that it's absurd. That's also ignoring the dogs they kill, when they kill each other, and that even the defensive shootings are often escalated by the police rather than them dealing with someone out to kill them.
  But, for real, it used to be a job you could be proud of, if you ignored al the systemic problems. There's still people that go into it wanting to make a difference, to help people and serve their community. You'll not get rich as an honest cop, but it's an okay living compared to jobs requiring similar levels of training and education. There's health coverage, paid time off, a union that backs officers well. If you only see the surface, it's a great job.
  It's under the surface that gets you, and since most cops start their career fairly young, they don't know that going in. Those get weeded out fast though. Sometimes when other cops turn on them for not wanting to be dirty. Sometimes lethally
  
  Because they are not trained to properly deescalate. Or how to deal with intense, potentially threatening situations. They simply fall back to "gun" if they lack the power to deal with a situation otherwise.
  In my country, a police officer drawing a weapon can expect to write a stack of reports on why he or she did that. And they better have a very good reason.

I'm defintely not a fan of cops, but in Scotland I never thought of them as evil/lazy/incompetent. They're still the arm of state control, and have been used to break strikes and stuff, but there is at least a vibe of policing by consent. There are plenty of cases of individual cops who were psychos, and the institution defintely defaults to 'protecting it's own' which is a fucking terrible attitude and in my mind makes all cops culpable for the crimes of the "bad apples". So I'm still acab overall.
But most of my interactions with the police have been pretty decent, and that includes being questioned as a suspect (for something that I may not have been innocent of...) They don't 'solve' many petty crimes like burglary that actual effect normal people but they are generally university educated and properly trained.
I now live in France, where the police are none of those things. I've only heard bad things about them ranging from patronising and incompetent to raping student protesters in the back of the police van. I would never ask a French cop for help, but unless I was high or carrying something illegal, i wouldn't be worried about talking to a Scottish policeman.
- Same in about every western civilized country, and many countries outside, too. American cops are relatively untrained, especially when it comes to non-standard situations, where they often stress out and overrreact due to lack of training.
- My experience in the UK is similar. I've never had a good experience with a police officer, and I've been profiled for the clothes I wear, but I've also never been scared of a police officer (especially never scared for my life). I probably wouldn't ask an officer for help, but I would also treat them like a person rather than a rabid dog who might just decide to shoot me

Mandatory training to become a police officer:
US: 600-700 hours on average, much of which is gun and combat training and not policing
Canada 2080 hours
Spain 2880 hours
Germany 4000 hours
With that little time spent training and heavy combat focus a US cop might get as little as 2-4 weeks of training on everything that a cop does that doesn't involve guns. People get shot by US cops because they weren't taught anything else. People don't get help from US cops because they were never taught solving problems that don't involve shooting a minority.
Cartman yelling respect my authoritah! is not far off from what a rookie US cop knows about being a police officer.

No idea on how bad it is,
From my understanding regarding French cops, A big issue is that the ranking at the end of training defines who choose their position first. Guess what happens : The cop who thrived in training will either go to a nice medium town in southern France to get a steady a job without too much stress, or take an interesting job in prestigious unit like crime-brigade (which would kickstart the rest of their carrer), while the one who barely passed end-up in a bad neighbourhood, resulting in high crime/bad neighbourhood end up with the worst cop of the country while the place who don't need much cops get the best ones.

It’s everywhere. It’s just a matter of more or less.
- You have not been outside the US in your lifetime, it seems.
  
  Lmao I literally come from a third world country where bribing cops is a regular thing. Then moved to the US and traveled to countries around Asia and Europe. Incompetent and corrupt cops exist everywhere, it's just a matter of the police force in general being more or less inept/corrupt.

American cops are kinda average compared to the global stage. Most of Europe, for example, has much more restrained, much less incompetent cops. On the other hand, much of the world has cops much worse than the US. I have a family member who lived in one of the less stable African countries, who recounted seeing a bunch of cops beat a child for "daring" to wear camo pants, and that wasn't considered particularly shocking.

All cops perpetuate the states monopoly on violence. Their primary purpose is also usually to uphold the interests of capital. I mean, just look at pro Palestine demonstrations in Europe. Depending on who you ask, that's pretty bad.
That doesn't mean that everyone becomes a cop for nefarious reasons though.
- I don't think their primary purpose is to uphold the interests of capital.
  It's more accurate to say they enforce laws supporting the interests of the populace, which align with the interests of capital.
  
  I think its: Uphold Status Quo
  Cops in the days of the USSR and Mao-Era PRC were not really protecting "capital", but protecting its Vanguardist Dictators.

it's everywhere, but in the usa it's exacerbated by the fact that most people have guns
while watching bodycam footage I often find myself thinking "just open the car door and cuff him, why hesitate and risk starting a car chase"
followed by the realization "oh, he has a gun"
obligatory Don't talk to the police
- obligatory Don’t talk to the police
  Every day is Shut The Fuck Up Friday.
- Obligatory: You have to explicitly invoke your 5th amendment rights, because the fucking supreme court made a dumass decision that says silence doesn't not imply you've invoked your right to silence. (What a stupid rule 🤦‍♂️)
  
  TIL

It's complicated and depends on the place.
In countries without money or great infrastructure, often the police have just as little training and education as the US and often give in to corruption in similar ways.
In other, more wealthy countries, the police often have far more training and may generally be less corrupt and abusive because of the extensive training, but that does not mean that they are perfect nor fall prey to being controlling simply because they've been state sanctioned to be able to control.
It is to be noted that the US literally goes out of its way to choose candidates that are more likely to respond violently than not, including giving them personality tests that seek out that behavior during the initial screening process.
- Speaking of corruption, there are places where you don't call the cops under any circumstances. If you somehow end up talking to cops for any reason, you can expect to loose a lot of money.
  The police officer could request a bribe or threaten with fake fines. There could also be harassment, abuse of power and even violence. The police forces can actually form a sort of government-owned mafia, where lower-ranking officers are expected to collect bribes and pass them up the chain of command.

I mean, it's universal because not of those traits are unique to any country, they're human traits.
Even if you subscribe to ACAB as a political stance, there are still competent people doing the job to the best of their ability. Being a tool of oppression isn't an inherently disabling factor. Plenty of serious pieces of shit have been good at their jobs, even when that job literally genocide.
Now, US police have disadvantages because of hiring, training and operational guidelines that favor order takers with low initiative and a willingness to adhere to authority. But it isn't the only country like that, nor is it the only country with a police force infiltrated by extremists waiting for a chance to take greater power, we're just a really big country, so it's easier to hide.
Couple that with a strong and effective police union that's also infiltrated, and is formed of the same people hired, and trained to basically be thugs, and the worst ones are harder to get rid of, even when higher ups want to.
But, again, don't think that the U.S. is the only place that has this trouble. Power corrupts, and the greater the power, the greater the corruption. Without vigilance and oversight, shit will creep in
- I mean, it's universal
  Tell me you never been to Europe (or probably anywhere outside of the US) without telling me.
- Another issue is the lack of filtering out the bad ones. If a police member here did such a shit only once that American cops seem to get away easily, this one would be done for. Out. No place in any police force in this country, ever. And probably losing their pension, too.
  In the US, a cop that managed to be so bad that they actually fire him or her seems to have no problems to get hired by another police force. Some areas seem even to prefer this kind of people for "being tough on crime" as they misinterpret it.

I remember reading that police training in most other countries takes a much longer time and much more effort than in the US. I am sure this is a factor.

In Japan, they seem to do their jobs ok. Definitely don't give any aggressive or evil vibes but feel like they lack assertiveness.

My experience with Chinese cops has been nothing but wonderful. Not the same for US ones. They peppered sprayed students during a local Palestinian protest…
- The Hong Kong protests, though... I'm not saying that's worse than American police, but I have little reason to believe they'd be much better, either. Your experience may not reflect the whole truth.
  
  You can find videos of them attacking protestors across China. ACAB after all,
- Depends.
  Non-political issues: Probabaly much better than the US.
  Political issues: Much worse than the US.
  
  I was making a statement. You don’t think beating or spraying (or even killing) students over protesting is political? How many black people die a year in America by cops? You say much worse because you know the name of one event without any details.
  Sorry you’re comment comes across as stereotypical American neoliberal who only knows the name TAM without any historical details
- Mine was corruption. Nothing super serious mind you, the standard sort of extortion/bribe deal you find around the world.
  
  Yours?
- Wait until you hear what they did at a peaceful protest at Kent State.
  
  I’m commenting based on my experience.

If you read the Japanese internet, tons would say they're at least the latter two. I'm sure some might also argue the first as well.
edit: This is a weird one to downvote. People living in Japan, both foreign and Japanese, complain about the cops doing nothing in all kinds of circumstances and making mistakes in a variety of procedures. I've had a mixed bag of interactions, personally.