Yet police have one of the safer jobs in the USA. Loggers, fisherman, roofers, truckers, farmers, and construction workers all hold more dangerous jobs than police. A police officer is more likely to die in an accident (car or otherwise) than by violence.
And despite this, it's continually hammered home into their heads that they have a very, very dangerous job. Yeah, you're correct, it's fear from the lies told to them.
I really think it is this simple. When any random person on the street can be concealing a firearm, it seems almost natural that police are going to develop a culture of adversity and fear. This of course leads to civilians having the same feelings towards the police.
What's your argument here ? Police brutality is ok because US police officers are more prone to being killed ? By now there are thousands of videos clearly showing people not resisting, sometimes not even participating in any crime, being beaten and/or killed by the police, it's not normal and no one should defend that.
Gun violence in the US is the symptom of very deep problems, you can't consider it just by itself while disregarding the societal issues being it.
No one said that police brutality is OK, just that it can be partially explained by the fact that police in the US are more likely to be killed than in other countries.