Legal Literacy - In legal and constitutional theory, the police are state apparatuses entrusted with a noble mandate: to protect, nurture, and serve the community. Law Number 2 of 2002 concerning the Indonesian National Police clearly states that the main duties of the police are to maintain public security and order, uphold the law, and provide protection, care, and service to the community. The police are not just uniformed officers, but a symbol of the state's presence among the people. However, behind the beautiful legal text, reality presents a very different face. The latest tragedy that has been widely reported is that the police hit an online motorcycle taxi driver using an official car. The irony is even more pronounced when we realize that the car was bought from the people's tax money, which was collected with great difficulty. In other words, the people finance state vehicles, but those vehicles end up hurting the people themselves. This phenomenon is not an isolated event. We still remember the Kanjuruhan tragedy (2022), where the use of tear gas by the police killed more than 130 football supporters a collective wound that has not healed until now. There was also the case of Brigadier J (2022), where the public was shocked by the fact that the police were involved in premeditated murder. Not to mention a series of other events: police shooting civilians in Lampung, police being caught as part of a drug network, to extortion and blackmail practices that are still rampant. This bleak portrait seems to confirm that the institution that should be the people's shield has instead transformed into a real threat to the people. In fact, the law has given great legitimacy and power to the police, but without adequate public supervision and control, that power turns into a tool of repression. We can call this a form of betrayal of the constitutional mandate. The police, who are paid with state money and use facilities financed by the people, should be fully subject to the principles of accountability and professionalism. However, when that function is diverted, the police are no longer "protectors of the people", but "predators of the people". The contradiction between legal norms and social reality shows that there is a crisis of legitimacy within the police force. Public trust in the National Police continues to decline. The Indonesian Political Indicator Survey Institute (2023) noted that the level of trust in the police is only around 60%, far below the TNI. This figure shows the widening gap between what the people expect and the reality on the ground. This essay is not just a critique of one collision case, but a reflection on a deeper structural problem. The state cannot turn a blind eye; every tragedy like this is a loud alarm that something is wrong in the way we manage the apparatus. Justice is not just about punishing criminals from civil society, but also ensuring that state apparatuses do not become uniformed criminals. In the end, the people have the right to ask bitterly: "For whom do the police work? For the people, or for power?" Because if cars from the sweat of the people continue to run over the blood of the people, then what collapses is not only trust in the police, but also the legitimacy of the state itself.