It’s imporant to point out that many cops are alarmed by excessive militarization, too:

I am a former DC police officer who served 16 years. (69-85). What we accomplished in the early late 60’s and early 70’s during the anti war demonstration years with less equipment, mediocre training at best, mostly all of us were Vietnam vets who returned home and joined the police department. We had very few situations where we needed CDU (swat). Any problems on a potentially volatile situation depended how we acted and responded to the citizens determined whether we had to fight our way out. What the officers today are lacking are field training officers with real “street experience.” In DC I learned in 6 months what another officer in a smaller or slower PD could take as long as 2 -3 years. I’m not taking anything away from the PD, but overkill with SWAT and all the armament is disturbing. I agree with you about all the Homeland Security funds available, all the “sidewalk commandos” can order just about any weapon they want. I also believe all the overkill starts at the top.

Actually it’s not Homeland Security so much as 1980s and 1990s drug war exceptions Congress passed to Posse Comitatus, which opened the spigot for military weaopnry to flow down to local police departments.

Here’s one from the brother of a long-time officer:

Thank you for writing about the militarization of police departments in Virginia and throughout America. The camouflaged (or black) uniforms, the assault rifles, the boots and the ever-present ski masks have no part in routine law enforcement in the America that I want to live in. As a 62 year old retired naval officer and brother of a 35-year retired police detective — who also is alarmed by this trend — I want to see state authorities step in and stop this trend before it becomes unstoppable. Couple the militarization with the illegal property seizures that are practiced across the land and you have set the stage for the majority of citizens to no longer trust its police or see them as a force for good.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 6th, 2006 at 11:01 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Police Militarization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.