"What I want to know is who gives them this much money, and why?" Nobody gives the police this money. The police take the money from people they arrest. It i

"What I want to know is who gives them this much money, and why?" Nobody gives the police this money. The police take the money from people they arrest. It is called asset forfeiture, it is legal, and it is widely used by police departments to pay for all that expensive military equipment they use. "Why is the police becoming para-military?" To gain more power over the population, to arrest more people, and to funnel more money to the well-connected corporations that benefit from this sort of tyranny.