After I read this post, the accompanying pictures brought home an issue that has been bothering me for a while.
Why the hell do cops need to dress up like US special forces?
While many countries (Italy comes to mind) have police that are actual military units, countries like the UK and the US used to go to great lengths to differentiate police forces from the military. Living in Germany for several years, it was not unusual to see armored cars and machine pistol wielding police on traffic duty. But in the US, guys in Ranger Rick hats, Sam Brown belts and motorcycle boots was as scary as it got. In the case of the Rhode Island State Police, their pimp look- maroon and greay with knee high maroon books, and full length leather coats with fur collars in the winter- was outright laughable.
I began to notice some K9 units wearing blue fatigues years ago, but on a recent commute to work through lovely Lexington, MA, I notices all the police wearing fatigues with military boots. For those of you not familiar with lovely Lexington, a major crime wave would be something on the line of someone using slugs intead of quarters in the municipal parking meters. Its been in the news recently after a house blew up because of gas system problems.
There must be way too much homeland security floating around.
This trend sends the wrong signal to citizens, and seems indicative of a transformation from a locally based community policing organization to a centralized paramilitary one.
Not to mention a guy checking meters dressed like a commando looks like a jerkoff.
PS I know the link is old- I’ve had this drafted for a month or two….