I remember when calling cops nazis was a crude epithet

I was in Panera this week and in walked three tough, crew cut men in battle fatigues and webbing, clearly ready to kick some Mujaheddin ass.  But they were St. Louis police.  Presumably from their tactical squad.  When I was a kid police looked like my Dad:  normal, perhaps a bit pudgy around the edges but normal.  Now with their skinheads and their tactical outfits and their friggin' tanks and their obscene and often criminal behavior, they're morphing into nazis.  At least in my eyes and the eyes of my friends.  They ain't on your side, they're on their side.  Hattip Carpe Diem.

From The Economist article “Armed and Dangerous“:

Early one morning a team of heavily armed police officers burst into the home of Eugene Mallory, an 80-year-old retired engineer in Los Angeles county. What happened next is unclear. The officer who shot Mr. Mallory six times with a submachine gun says he was acting in self-defense—Mr. Mallory also had a gun, though he was in bed and never fired it. Armed raids can be confusing: according to an investigation, the policeman initially believed that he had ordered Mr. Mallory to “Drop the gun” before opening fire. However, an audio recording revealed that he said these words immediately after shooting him. Mr. Mallory died. His family are suing the police.

(Note: Reason.tv covered the Mallory tragedy about a month ago here.)

Such tragedies are too common in America. One reason is that the police have become more militarised. Raids by Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) units used to be rare: according to Peter Kraska of Eastern Kentucky University there were only about 3,000 a year in the early 1980s. Now they are routine: perhaps 50,000 a year (see article).

The war on drugs creates perverse incentives. When the police find assets that they suspect are the proceeds of crime, they can seize them. Under civil asset-forfeiture rules, they do not have to prove that a crime was committed—they can grab first and let the owners sue to get their stuff back. The police can meanwhile use the money to beef up their own budgets, buying faster patrol cars or computers. All this gives them a powerful incentive to focus on drug crimes, which generate lots of cash, rather than, say, rape, which does not. This is outrageous. Citizens should not forfeit their property unless convicted of a crime; and the proceeds should fund the state as a whole, not the arm that does the grabbing.

The militarization of American law enforcement is alarming. The police are not soldiers. Armies are trained to kill the enemy; the police are supposed to uphold the law and protect citizens. They should use the minimum force necessary to accomplish those goals.

That does not mean getting rid of SWAT teams entirely. But it does mean restricting their use to situations where there are solid grounds to believe that the suspect involved is armed and dangerous. They should not be used to serve search warrants on non-violent offenders, or to make sure that strip joints are code-compliant, or in any circumstance where a knock on the door from a regular cop would suffice. The “war on drugs” is supposed to be a metaphor, not a real war

 But you have to admit, going with guns blazing like they do on TV is effing fun innit?