Militarization of US Police

[Spartan_KCT]

I can understand why America is arming and equipping their police with heavier gear. The Police are dealing with dangerous threats in dangerous situations more than ever, I mean every now and then there's some shooting going on by a mad man with a rifle and the police needs tools to deal with them, or deal with dangerous armed criminals or deal with prepared and trained rioters in an escalating riot. In the past the police indeed had only a trusty revolver, but those days are gone now. incidents of domestic terrorism, violent shootings and criminals with automatic firearms and other small arms are more common than in the past, you just can't use a revolver or a semi automatic pistol only anymore. You need a good old trusty rifle now more than ever. Armoured vehicle is a debated subject, I believe they need them to protect their lives, otherwise they'd just get simply shot in a police cruiser or get their cruisers on fire and damaged by rocks in riots.

I totally agree with you about the dangers they face, law enforcement frequently have to deal with life threatening situations. But armoured vehicles are not needed in a city. They've been made to provide the army because of the growing demand of mine resistant vehicles in Afghanistan. There's already a lot of technology available to make police cruiser bullet resistant. Take for instance the video below. If we equip every police cruiser with this type of window, that'll solve a lot of problems. Obviously the SWAT will need a special range of vehicles but I don't think they need no where near how much are being used today.

As about the vehicles used in riots, you don't need MRAP. In my opinion it's as simple as that.
In my country we have a special range of vehicles just for riot oppression. Take for instance the vehicle below, which is very similar to the one we have in my country.


I think the main problem is that law enforcement are using the equipment in unjust ways.