Is militarized police always undesirable? [View all]

[Matrosov]

As most of you, I am watching in horror as police officers looking more like combat troops are descending on Ferguson to face off with the African-American population there, whose only crime is Protesting While Black.

Many have voiced their concerns about law enforcement, which is supposed to serve and protect, showing up in African-American residential areas with assault rifles, body armor, and armored personnel carriers. More like, threaten and intimidate.

But I wonder whether out criticism of this militarized police should be universal? Is it always bad when the police is equipped as though it's preparing to assault Fallujah?

I'm thinking of situations like the Branch Davidians in 1993 or the Cliven Bundy ranch earlier this year, where police need to protect themselves and the general population from domestic terrorists. As President Obama has two years left in this term and there is a good chance the next President will be another progressive, I see confrontations with militias, sovereign citizens, and other right-wing anarchists and terrorists only becoming more common in the future.

Perhaps there are situations where combat ready police is a blessing, depending on law enforcement's 'target'