imported post
This is a sore spot with me... the militarization of the civilian police. I understand the need for certain specialized units (i.e. SWAT)... but it seems, more and more lately, that even your local ticket-writers are geared up in battle dress.
It pisses me off that we have police departments in this country that are better funded than some National Guard units. WTF do local police need with tanks and grenade launchers? State police SWAT units, sure... but not local PD's. I don't care how big your city is. Leave that up to the State... not the cities. Some of these big-city PD's are tactically superior to their local NG. That's way too much power in the hands of some of these jackass city council members. Take Detroit, for instance. The power those clowns have frightens me. Detroit has enough firepower to take over every one of their neighboring cities. Compound this with the fact that Congress allows the sending of NG troops OVERSEAS to fight in undeclared wars, and that leaves the States squarely in the hands of the POLICE to provide security. Police should not be used as a fourth-string military (behind regular Army, Reserve, and National Guard). States are to be sovereign... individual or collective cities are not to be superior to the resources of the State.
The image transformation of police across the nation, in my opinion, is merely the personification of the overall disposition. They don't consider themselves civilians anymore. Last I checked, the military already has MP's. Give it time... the days of standard issue patrol CARS may eventually give way to patrol HUMMERS. But I guess when you spread your active, reserve, and NG military resources so thin. by ending them all across the globe as mercenaries, then politicians begin to press civilian police into homeland military service. What further irritates me is that civilians are not privvy to equip themselves similarly as the local PD's. For instance, owning a bullet resistant vest is illegal? WTF? Why? The way I see it, if local PD's are dressed for war, then citizens might have something to worry about and might want to adopt similar measures "just in case".
I say no more than this.