re: "Militarization of the Police" discussion

quote:

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When you prepare for war, you are no longer protecting. You are seeking and destroying an enemy.

When you are a hammer, everything is a nail.

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Well put. To expound a little further, when police see themselves as a military force, every citizen then becomes an enemy combatant and their value is lessened.

Anyone that knows anything about actual effective policing will tell you that it's not about the hardware they are armed with, but the trust and relationships built in the community in which they police.

ETA: The MRAPS, weapons, fatigues, body armor, grenade launchers, etc. are all symptoms of the disease, not the disease itself.