Nothing wrong with them having advanced equipment to bring out when necessary. Listening to some people you'd think that the police are cruising around in tanks

Nothing wrong with them having advanced equipment to bring out when necessary. Listening to some people you'd think that the police are cruising around in tanks. When the police have to go up against criminals wielding AK's and high powered rifles I want them to be as equipped as possible to defend themselves. The problem is not with the police but rather the widespread availability of guns in our society. It's easy to heft blame on the police, but also intellectually disingenuous because they act and react to the conditions of the society they are tasked to protect. Those conditions are where blame must be placed. As an aside, if a malicious government ever wanted to exert control over the populace then they would have a very easy time doing so with the military regardless of how well equipped the police were. In fact, distributed police forces beholden to local municipalities would likely be a line of defense against a centralized aggressive military. "Police militarization" is really nothing to be concerned about. Unless you're a criminal. Edit: Not being sarcastic.