Quote Originally Posted by canuck View Post
Well it was the United States' ambition and self defined role to be the world's cop for the past 70 years. Just look at how this is reflected in the massive turn toward heavy armor within the US police departments of even the smallest towns in the past decades... The buildup wasn't foisted on the US, it was a money grabbing, job procuring mammoth enterprise from the get-go. It just transformed over time and now, it all seems terribly expensive when set against less warlike partners in the equation. That's about it.
It is about time the U.S. stopped being the world's cop not that I see that happening. Perhaps, to the extent necessary, Canadian and the rest of NATO's money and bodies could be substituted for that purpose.

The policy of giving police departments armored military surplus vehicles began in 1997 when Bill Clinton was President. President Obama restricted track vehicles and some other military equipment by executive order but armored military vehicles like those used in Ferguson were still allowed. President Trump seems to have erased Obama's executive order with one of his own.

Where I used to live, one of these armored military vehicles was used to approach an old coot's house to lob tear gas into his house. He had been refusing to pay his taxes in a dispute with the County. It was a test for the new equipment. The tear gas canisters burned down his house.