Are you a Brit living in LA jbod, if so give us some stories/impressions.
I am a brit living out here.
The culture is the same but different (useful insight! You are welcome..). But that is to say the language is the same but the sentence structure is different but it all leads from different culture, life priorities and life styles. I live in Long Beach now and I have been in the car (not driving) when it was pulled over for not stopping sufficiently at a stop sign. The Cop was perfectly pleasant and well mannered and almost apologetic. That is the only time I have ever directly interacted with an officer.
We have had multiple occasions to make an non-emergency call to the local department to have people removed from the stoop of a Elementary school across the road, they responded reasonably quickly and politely. They even come out when on two occasions the drive was blocked, they pre-check before the vehicle is towed.
I see cops all the time, way more than I ever did in the UK. Police cars and officers are far more present, they are actually on patrol. Every single day I will pass multiple people who have been pulled over on the freeway, often for using a mobile phone while driving (the traffic is too slow for speeding).
I work in Santa Monica, I hear of the odd shooting, the odd car chase. Never seen either in the 3 years I have been here. Depending on who you speak to and their background depends on whether they have respect for the Police force or not. A few people in my team literally grew up in the ghetto, with one close friend telling me he was surprised to live passed 16 years old.
Life is not seen as "cheap" here and the police certainly act more like prison wardens that what we see in the UK. But they don't walk around like Judge Dredd and it drives me mad when people forget that officers are people too.
The gun culture is insane, perfectly normal people just expect to own a gun in the same way a brit would expect to buy PG Tips. It is a mindset almost impossible to understand.