Like I said... I have LOTS of family & friends who are in various positions of policing power. For the most part, I support them in a very hard job where they just want to go home safely to their family at the end of the day like everyone else. I respect and care deeply about every one of the "good guys".
Having said that... Just because someone puts on a badge or uniform doesn't automagically make them a "good guy". I know (or know of) WAY too many LEOs, military, government that are bullies, thugs, and on a power-trip. I'm fortunate that I've been able to talk with and educate as many as I can. It is very hard for those who're tasked to protect us to keep from falling into the trap, because they see the worst of the worst who are out there to hurt people (whether foreign or domestic) everyday. It quickly becomes an "us vs. them" situation for the LEO/military involved. Unfortunately that "us" becomes their group of LEO/military and "them" means everybody else. It just happens.
I've had this conversation plenty of times. I consider any LEO/military person who has any desire to wield power over the rest of us as the enemy... plain and simple. If they think it is OK to stomp on our freedoms and rights, such as "in a state of emergency", then they're part of the problem, not the solution. On the other hand, I have gotten plenty of LEO/military (including some of those family and friends who used to be of the "us vs. them" mindset) to understand that we're on the same side. They want to stop bad guys from hurting people and so do we. MOST people are on their side, but pulling power-trips on "civies" puts them on the "other" side!
I've gotten a lot of flak from the LEO folks because whenever someone says something like "we need more cops on the streets" or "cops are need to be better armed because they're outgunned", I disagree. How many cops are "enough"? 1 for 100 people? 1 for 10? 1 for 2? 1 for 1? How about 2 for 1?!?! Then we certainly wouldn't have any crime would we? or would we... Perhaps then people will realize that the largest criminal organization is government that dictates at the point of a gun and uses force and coercion to make people do what some bureaucrat deems correct. On the second part... The occasions when LEO are "out-gunned" are extremely rare, but even in a small town I found out that my town in MA was offered military equipment to form a SWAT team for super-bargain-basement prices. Why? At the time we didn't even have full-time 24/7 police coverage (didn't need it... and even tho there's 24/7 coverage now, it's still not needed...), so why should this small town of less than 10k (including cats & dogs I think) have para-military training and equipment? I talked with the Chief at the time and asked him why he thought they needed M-16s (not AR-15s... M-16s! Fully-automatic, machine-gun, US military surplus M-16s...) an armored assualt vehicle/personnel carrier (yes, a full-sized armored US military armored assault vehicle) with a mounted M-60!?!? His response was, "But it's so cheap! They're practically giving it to us!" Long story short... That stuff wasn't bought, the town doesn't have a SWAT team
and if a local officer gets into a situation the town has a lot of folks who'll come out to back up the PD if needed. With the local PD acting like "peace officers" instead of LEOs, it is quite common for someone to stop where the officer is parked to deliver coffee or ask the officer on a call if any assistance is needed, especially if there is something suspicious going on... We have a new Chief now... Great person... When the old Chief retired, I was a strong proponent of moving people up instead of hiring an unknown from somewhere else... The New Chief came up the ranks and we've had a great relationship including many of the conversations previously discussed!
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