Attica! Attica! 
But sir, they are dead!
Nonsense. Just a flesh wound.
They’re feeling much better !
That is likely a valid aspect of it. I am having trouble finding info about arrests, but when you look at incarcerations the % who are incarcerated is much higher than in the past.
http://www.project.org/images/graphs/Adults-in-Jail_2.jpg
The legal system is a business now, not a public service. Criminalizing as many aspects of life as possible justifies hiring tons of cops, attorneys, probation officers, prison workers, etc.
Al Pacino! Al Pacino!
Depends on what result was intended. 
I’ll stop right there and simply say this: cite?
Please show proof of the hordes of cops out there harassing pedestrians.
Yes I think this is a big part of it, police and the legal system have gone from being a strain on taxpayer money to being a money generating business.
I could spend all night posting similar “cites” about the privatization of the legal system.
I had to laugh recently when I was looking at a local police blotter in the USA, and there was an arrest for and I quote “camping within city limits”, hah! Glad they got that villain off the street.
That’s a bit of an oversimplification. In Aus, some cities prohibit drinking in some areas.
Drinking laws were brought in around the time the WTL tried to get prohibition up. These were state laws.
In the 70’s, state drinking laws were mostly used, in Qld, NSW and WA, to pick up and jail blacks. The state drinking laws were repealed by Left-side governments. in Qld and WA (dunno NSW, SA, NT). (This did have the effect, even in Aus with generally good weather, of killing off a lot of alcoholics who depended on being picked up to dry out, warm up, and get fed.)
In Vic, my state, there are not many ‘aboriginals’. Drinking-in-public laws were repealed because everybody else was doing it, and because of a very immature attitude towards drinking by the government. The predictable result was more drinking in public. This eventually led to the state government bringing back a drinking-in-public framework which allowed local councils to regulate drinking-in-public.
This means that in Vic, some councils prohibit drinking-in-public in some areas.
I assume that other states have brought in similar rules: they don’t like getting out of step with each other.
Many times if police are truly getting out of hand it just takes a few people to reign them end.
Take for example a KC suburb I know of called Roland Park. I had some bad dealing with police there in the past but they were later cleaned up when a new mayor was elected and cleaned house by firing the chief and several officers. Same with many a small town sheriff office.
And in another case I know of up[ in Dakotas where a new police chief came in and cleaned up a major meth problem. Mostly by getting a variety of jurisdictions to work together.