The militarization of police is a very bad idea. If coppers NEED armored vehicles and machine guns then something is dreadfully wrong with our society. Not to mention, look at what often happens with all that firepower at their disposal. How many unarmed people have been thoroughly swiss cheesed by the NYPD in the last 20 years? In fact it almost happened again yesterday. Sounds like they are the ones that need low capacity mags and "assault weapons" bans!
The police are our first responders and I think it best to tread carefully when we start vilifying them in the court of public opinion.
That said, we're all human beings first and anything else second. First take the sheer numbers of police officers - in that group its statistically certain that some fairly large number will have personal issues that make them less than ideal. Hell, take any group of people doing a job and some will naturally excel while others barely squeak by. I knew a guy that became a police officer who was a bully and remained one for the 25 years he served. He did something right at the end that got him fired and he had to sue to get his retirement benefits reinstated. Anybody that knew him as a kid was not remotely surprised when reading about all that in the paper.
Then add in all the violence and riots. Some might be perfectly fine ordinarily but some combination of fear, adrenaline, performance in front of peers, anger makes them do things they normally wouldn't. I just saw a video of a 75 year old man in Buffalo getting knocked over and cracking his skull on the pavement in a bloody mess -- and then (from the looks of it) ignore him.. Horrifying. I'd bet that individually these guys would never do that. Maybe the one that pushed him would. I don't know. But put them in that situation in the first place especially in all that impersonal riot gear and here we have it.
I also couldn't help but think that there are any number of Iraqi and Afghan citizens who might look at that and say '
good you're getting a taste of your own medicine'. 20 years of warfare .... for what exactly .... has downstream effects and maybe we're looking at some of them right now.
Apart from the protests and rioting since this is AE I'd point out that John B Alexander says something similar about the millions of people in our military. The uniform represents training and commitment not superpowers, and it doesn't necessarily level the playing field in terms of behavior. I'd also point out that in all this insanity we've seen people who are city councilmen, ivy league lawyers, all sorts of people behaving in ways you would never suspect under ordinary circumstances. When it comes to UFO reporting, and any other paranormal circumstance, I try to think of the human being involved first and the uniform and credentials second.
Oh, and swiss cheese. I shot in a local IDPA style combat league with a bunch of cops. One state trooper in particular is a young man I watched grow up and have serious doubts about him being an authority figure. Hopefully he'll mature. I was surprised at how, in general, they're lousy shots. Can't take it for granted that they know all that much about the weapons they carry. One deputy sheriff i sued to call 'machine gun kelly' because he could rip through magazines like John Wick and at any moment have a handful of hot brass in the air. But he couldn't hit the side of a barn. If the adrenaline from some friendly competition does that I hope he never has to do that out in public.