[Rob Instigator]

It is all bullshit and it is all just the symptoms of societal control by the ruling elite.

The police are militarized, both in training and in equipment/weaponry, and the excuse given is that criminals have high-powered military-style weaponry. That may be true but it applies maybe in .001% of all situations that any police officer will likely face, even though the police are trained to act this way EVERY TIME they deal with someone deemed "likely dangerous" meaning black, hispanic, arab, asian, poor-looking, mentally ill, etc...

So, does the government then do the next logical thing and ban/restrict the access to military-style weaponry? (the whole NRA/gun rights folks would be just fine with handguns, hunting rifles, and shotguns) No. The government does not do anything because our elected agents don't give a fuck about the opinion of a person making $30,000/year, instead sucking the assholes of anyone and everyone that can donate that same amount at the drop of a hat (corporations, PAC's, Lobbyists, criminals, and other super rich folks like them, especially the rich folks that get richer off the sale of military equipment and weapons to underfunded police departments throughout the nation.).

Why do the rich not give a fuck that the police are militarized? Because the police work FOR the rich. They do NOT police the rich, they police the masses of "poor" regular people who, if they so wanted, could at any point advance on the rich and steal all their shit and kill them. The rich hire their own security, guns-for-hire/mercenaries, so they can rest comfortable knowing they have hired killers "protecting" them from criminals, and the police protecting them from the unwashed masses of filthy poor.

In any individual police department there are divisions of labor. Let us use Houston for example. There are around 3,800 full time HPD officers. (There are also county sheriffs, constables, and other small community police). Of those 3,800 officers, around 800 or so are desk jockeys, doing the administrative work that keeps the HPD running. Around 2,000 are rank and file patrol officers, out in the streets "policing" traffic stops, illegal parking, making their presence seen to deter would-be-criminals, etc. (Some of these cops also steal drugs from dealers, sell them, take bribes from local businesses to "protect" the business, etc.) This in a city of 2million+.

That leaves around 900 or so other officers who are divided up into specialties, such as homicide (around 200 officers in Houston), Vice, robbery detectives (only big robberies matter! small burglaries are barely even recorded. ), Special Victims/sex crimes, as well as the higher ups in the police force, Lieutenants, captains, etc. There are also officers in charge of crime scenes, evidence gathering and maintenance, etc.

The whole system needs to be recreated. Otherwise the continual escalation of the police into a para-military force meant to subjugate the regular (non rich, non powerful) citizenry will continue unabated.

It takes good officers to point this bullshit out, but like all frats and clubs, speaking out against the few bad apples is considered anathema, and downright dangerous to not only a police officer's career, but his life.