BRI,
Dude, you can justify your ramping up of weaponry as vehicles all you want. Fact is, since 9/11, LEO all across the country at all levels have been in a frenzy of militarization. Do you deny that?
And as far as your comments about MIL dudes f#cking up, of course they do. The HUGE difference is that we police our own. You all pull up the Blue Wall and never publically ridicule the jacked up actions of another officer. Other than the dude in TX whom posts his disciplinary actions on Facebook, I have never seen it. It's ironic in this case that you mention the actions of a few. In my experience, the silence from your side of the fence once Thin Blue Line is in effect, is deafening. Show me some cases where an officer publicly called bullsh#t on something a fellow officer did.
Take the idiots in CA who lit up the two paper delivery ladies, mistakenly thinking it was Dorner. Oops, turns out it was two women in a pickup delivering newspapers. Those f#cktards got remedial training. What do you suppose the charges would be for me? Prison, that's what. Too many of your kind operate with impunity and citizens are injured, mamied and killed all the time becuase of it. All becasue of absolute fear, lack of training and the "I'm going home at night, no matter what" mindset (see example above).
Until you (LEO at all levels) realize that you are a major componenet of the problem, we'll continue down this road.
While we're on the military theme, I noticed in another thread that you were an "Operator." AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA. You most certainly are, or were not an Operator. Just becasue you jocked up/played dress up, stacked up and kicked doors does NOT make you an Operator. Sure sounds like you want to be one though. Thanks for furthering my point.