>I believe the massive number of vets returning from places like Afghanistan and Iraq has had quite a bit to do with the increased tensions between civilians an

>I believe the massive number of vets returning from places like Afghanistan and Iraq has had quite a bit to do with the increased tensions between civilians and police as well, and has also contributed to the militarization of police across the country (at least in attitude, if not in equipment). Seems unlikely to me. Police departments always had vets. When we went to war in Kuwait in 1991, guys right around retirement age had been in Vietnam. Back when they joined the veteran cops were military veterans from WW II and Korea. Police departments have always preferred to hire combat veterans, because you don't know who's going to crack the first time they take incoming fire. So you hire someone who's already been shot at. Anyway, the time frame is off. The first gulf war wasn't until 1991, but police departments had already traded in their .38 Specials for high capacity automatics and started dressing like ninjas by the mid '80s. From what I can tell police forces in the US stopped acting like police and more like an invading army as a response to well armed drug dealers and a few well-publicized shootouts in which the home team didn't do well, most notably this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_FBI_Miami_shootout https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_FBI_Miami_shootout Which might be the most studied shootout in US history. The FBI changed its contact policies as a result, and police departments normally pay close attention to FBI recommendations. It's a kind of positive feedback loop, where fearful cops subject people to humiliating procedures in an effort to keep themselves safe, and people responding like people always respond to humiliation. A colleague of mine spent fifteen minutes spread-eagled face down on a hot street because he kind of looked like someone who committed a nonviolent crime. Do that to a thousand people and one of them is going to start shooting the next time he's pulled over.