Is It Time to Reconsider the Militarization of American Policing?

We're reaching, and possibly past, a tipping point.

by Rod D. Martin
July 22, 2013

The Posse Comitatus Act prevents the use of the military for policing on American soil.  But you'd hardly know it existed based on the increasing militarization of police forces, not just in major urban areas like Los Angeles but in communities as small as 20,000 people or less.

Today's Wall Street Journal asks the question in my title, in an article called "Rise of the Warrior Cop".  It deserves a look.

Some will rightly respond that we live in a time in which terrorists are a constant threat and potentially able to wield weapons of mass destruction.  But this is no longer a conservative position at the point at which we begin to compromise fundamental freedom.  Benjamin Franklin said "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."  Franklin was no pacifist:  he put his life on the line for the idea of America, against the greatest power on Earth, a power that didn't mind using its milit…