One of the great disappointmrnts and major errors in the last 20 years is the militarization of American law enforcement. This one fact has done more to change the paradigm regarding how law enforcement sees their role than any other single factor. What once a paradigm of service to community and protecting of its citizens, instead has changed to a mindset of an occupying force.

When Bush made available the military grade weaponry and equipment to American law enforcement agencies a paradigm shift occurred. After Bush's draw down fron Iraq and Afghanisran, massive amounts of military grade weaponry and equipment suddenly came available. In order not to leave it behind in these countiies it was offered up to police agencies. Obama unfortunately allowed it to continue, and trump even encouraged and promoted the policy.

Now with police wearing tactical gear made for the battlefield and weapons of the same intent, a mental paradigm shift occurred in law enforcement. Equiped like an army, police now envisioned themselves as an occuoying force in the communites they once felt compelled to protect and serve. Im not even sure if they were consciously aware of the shift themselves. This phenomena has been academically researchef and verified in multiple studies.

Couple this with the number of military veterans and spec ops veterans being hired to law enforcement agencies upon their return from deployment, and ths paradign shift was almost complete. Importing their experience with working on a war zone and law enforcement philosophical shift was complete. Police were now an occupying force and their communities had become enemy combatants as opposed to citizens. The transition was made totally complete when police agecies across the nation began teaching killology mechanics and strategems as opposed to de-escalation strategems and techniques.

So now across the nation we are witnessing a occupation force as opposed to a neighborhood police department. Dump all the military weaponry, get rid of the military assault vehicles, reduce the number of weapons on your belt and come out among the citizenry and become one of us agsin.