I don't hate the police. I just wonder why they need MRAPs, assault weapons, all the military gear and more & more police and laws.
Don't you?
I know the Founding Fathers would have wondered, and wondered mightily.
Then I must have misread because I thought your posts indicated that you were as wrathful toward cops in general as you are about their increasing militarization.
But really that's your business. As I indicated in my post to Pining-4-Texas I can only judge by where I live and how I live.
I am NOT comfortable with the militarization of what used to be called our "peace officers". (The unsurprising fact is that up here you see the phenomenon much more ominously amongst U.S. Forest Service and other federal employees than you do with our cops).
But I am also sickened by the increasingly warlike environment many police officers find themselves working in. I'm not entirely surprised when they react as if in combat.
I'm a guy who will protect his life, family and property immediately and forcefully, within the law of course. I may be uneasy about certain police policies and actions but at the same time I have to wonder how differently I would act in their shoes.
I appreciate your civil post to me.
No, the police do not need all that stuff, and you might be surprised to learn that many police officers agree with you. The regular street cops view all the SWAT gadgets and procedures with a jaundiced eye.
One of our sons was a cop for several years, and he risked his life for people who hated him. On several occasions he had to make split second decisions on whether some jerk had a weapon and intended to use it. Cops do a job that most people could never do. They are threatened and abused on a daily basis and not paid much for the risky job they have.
When they leave the force for another job or retirement, almost all of them have nightmares for months while they decompress from what they saw and the alert status they had to maintain at all times.
If a cop shoots somebody, it’s all over the news. If a cop is killed, it hardly merits a mention. People who have never done the job should just shut up.