Interesting New Rule from Bill Maher on Friday night's Real Time concerning the militarization of police.

Courtesy of Mediaite:  

Maher ran through the gamut of American small towns (e.g. — Doraville, Ga., Nixon, Mo., Justice, Ill.) that somehow employ military-style tanks in their police departments. These tanks, often gifted by the Pentagon to police departments, come “fresh from our glorious victories in Iraq and Afghanistan,” and are used for unnecessarily over-militarized police exercises. 

“Cops all know what it’s like when you get a new toy, you want to use it.” he continued. “I bought a glue gun once, and by the end of the weekend my dog’s face was stuck to the toilet rim. But in West Springfield, Mass., the police department’s new toy is two grenade launchers. Why? In case Boko Haram takes Connecticut?” he joked. 

Other interesting moments: 

“Once you start dressing and equipping people like an occupying army, they start acting like one.” 

“We used to send SWAT teams only for hostage or active shooter scenarios. It happened a few thousand times a year. Now it happens a thousand times a week — forced, no-knock entries into private homes. And now for almost any reason at all like serving warrants, breaking up poker games, arresting low-level pot dealers. Come on. It’s a guy who sells weed, you don’t need to shoot his dog and crash through his window.” 

“In the ’90s, conservatives used to warn about jack-booted government thugs coming to take away our freedoms. But where are those conservatives today when we need them? This is the massive expansion of government power that you numbskulls in the tea party should be freaking out about. You’re always screaming about the loss of liberty, and how tyranny is coming. Yeah, it’s coming right through the door with a battering ram, no warrant, and a stun grenade.”

I have always been a supporter of law enforcement, which is always made easier when you are a middle class white male living in a predominantly Caucasian community.

However the mindset that I see taking over the police force is numerous places throughout the country makes me want to avoid those places like the plague.

Take a look at that picture and tell me if the first thing that popped into your mind wasn't "Must be soldiers stationed over seas." But it's not, it's law enforcement professional on American streets dealing with American law breakers.

So now go ahead and tell me that having loose gun restrictions in this country is not negatively affecting ever one of its citizens. Because I think we all that these men are not covered in Kevlar because they are afraid of somebody pulling a knife or a baseball on them.