Stephen Beale had an interesting article on GoLocalProv, last week, on the trend of local police militarization that quoted me.  Here is the complete comment that I sent him:

Military equipment — from machine guns to armored trucks — is designed for use against an enemy, mainly in hostile terrain. That’s a very different mission from serving and protecting a civilian population at home.

We have to balance community security and officer safety with individual liberty.  However, militarization of police is implicitly a constraint on our freedom.  My larger concern is that big government and militarized police go hand in hand.

For isolated incidents in which a significant military-type force is needed, domestically, actual military units can be called in to assist local law enforcement.  If police departments find they need this sort of firepower to enforce the law, generally, we have to start wondering why there’s so much law to enforce.