Detroit Free Press
...the growing militarization of local police is raising alarms across the country. Civil rights advocates, law enforcement experts and politicians from both parties are questioning the proliferation of warrior cops local police arrayed in SWAT team gear and camouflage, using equipment once seen only in combat to patrol the streets of Americas cities, suburbs and small towns...
A report released this summer by the American Civil Liberties Union found that police departments nationwide are increasingly using military tactics and weapons for such routine matters as serving search warrants, sometimes with deadly and tragic results.
We found through our investigation the use of paramilitary weapons and tactics causes serious problems for undermining public confidence, said Kara Dansky, senior counsel for the ACLU and the author of the report, which looked at 800 SWAT raids by law enforcement in 20 states and the agencies acquisition of military equipment.
Overly militarized police view people in the community as the enemy, Dansky said...
We think this misnomer were being too military is false, given the threats ever present in todays society, said Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard. These pieces of equipment are something we hope we never have to use but hope is not a strategy in our world. Sometimes, I think, people dont understand the reality of todays world.
The reality of today's world is that the mission of the police is no longer to "serve and protect."
The mission of the police is to be warriors executing the War on Drugs, the War on Terror, the War on Whatever... And as Bruce Schneier has articulated:
To the military, we (civilians) are a population to be subdued. Wars can temporarily override the Constitution... we see that attitude in the war on terror. Because it's a war, we can arrest and imprison Americans indefinitely without charges. We can eavesdrop on the communications of all Americans without probable cause. We can assassinate American citizens without due process. We can have secret courts issuing secret rulings about secret laws. The militarization of the police is just one aspect of an increasing militarization of government.
So, who is the enemy?
Uno