[balch3]

There’s less violent crime than any time in the nation’s history. If you walk around with a hammer all day, everything begins to look like a nail. Apply that maxim to law enforcement with tactical gear and a tactical mentality, and you see where it takes you. There

Yes, there are times when extraordinary equipment and methods may be necessary. Those times are and should be rare. A garden variety civil disturbance doesn’t require armored vehicles, snipers, and police who think they’re Delta Force. And Ferguson is a garden variety civil disturbance. It’s not an all out insurrection that threatens the social order-despite what breathless pundits on all sides would have you believe.

When “protect and serve” are core values instead of just slogans written on the door of a cruiser, there’s not much need for cool-guy gear and cool-guy tactics. But that’s not nearly as much fun for the hotshots who now carry badges for the wrong reason.

This post would have been popular during the Bundy Ranch standoff. Now, not so much, I’ll wager. Principles are usually flexible depending on how much one identifies with the parties involved, and not many Freepers will have much sympathy with the Ferguson protestors. Be that as it may, militarization of law enforcement is a trend that should be reversed, for all our sakes.

[ifinnegan]

Big difference between a police force with riot gear and the para-military forces of Federal Departments which shouldn’t even have a law enforcement branch.

[2ndDivisionVet]

The Ferguson riots are not even significant in the context of race riots, much less insurrection or revolt. My late father had just retired from the Marines and was working in Watts the day the riots broke out. Now remember, he had been a Gunnery Sergeant and veteran of three wars months before and was 6 feet tall and 225. He very nearly lost his life that day just because his company had placed him in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[Zhang Fei]

There’s less violent crime than any time in the nation’s history.

Not just incorrect, but off by 50%. We're a long way from Mayberry. Even in 1960, crime was starting to skyrocket. Since then, the numbers have gotten steadily worse, as the following per capita crime rates show:

Year	Population	Total	Violent	Property	Murder	Rape	Robbery	assault	Burglary	Theft	Theft
1960	179,323,175	1,887.2	160.9	1,726.3	5.1	9.6	60.1	86.1	508.6	1,034.7	183.0
1961	182,992,000	1,906.1	158.1	1,747.9	4.8	9.4	58.3	85.7	518.9	1,045.4	183.6
2011	311,587,816	3,292.5	387.1	2,905.4	4.7	27.0	113.9	241.5	701.3	1,974.1	230.0
2012	313,914,040	3,246.1	386.9	2,859.2	4.7	26.9	112.9	242.3	670.2	1,959.3	229.7

If you think crime is out of control, you're right. It's just less out of control than in the 80's and 90's, such that it is over double the rate of the early 60's, which was itself much higher than the norm in the 50's.

[MarMema]

If you walk around with a hammer all day, everything begins to look like a nail.

Perfect.