Until 1990, most police agencies in the United States were operating under the community policing strategies developed over a 70 year perspective. The operational guidelines were simple. Police officers were to be visible, friendly, morally unwavering, and in possession of copious amounts of common sense and fair play. Children ran up to squad cars with admiration and asked questions in rapid fire succession of an officer they knew as Officer Burks or Sheriff Allenby. Adults waved with genuine respect and a grateful heart knowing these officers were reliable and had the courage to meet any challenge that would threaten their community.

Times had already begun to change in the urban areas and large metroplex regions of the country as vicious gangs began to literally take over in the most vulnerable and violent sections of the cities. Law enforcement officers (LEO’s) were finding out quickly and tragically that the weak and innocent were victims of the most ruthless crimes and even the LEO was not immune from attack, ambush and murder. Out of the changing landscape of our country began to emerge the “Robocop” of the approaching new century.
As the mission evolved from community policing and visible “presence posturing” on the streets to military style tactics and combat fatigues, the relationship between citizen and LEO began an inevitable shift to an “us against them” standoff that continues to this day and will into the future.

This well-planned and deeply held strategy by police agency high ranking staff members begins with recruitment and ends only when the LEO retires. It is all consuming in the training academies, continues in the squad rooms and is executed flawlessly on the streets. It has an appearance of a cold-hearted and steel-eyed demeanor that now invokes fear within the children and dread amongst adults that is neither necessary nor warranted.

What happened and why has it come to this? One answer is money. Huge amounts of it were given to thousands of police and sheriff’s offices across the nation to transform Mayberry into Metropolis. Tons of military style equipment and training to go with it seduced the local departments who now looked and acted like the “big boys” in Chicago or New York. Instead of serving a warrant peacefully on a doorstep, SWAT teams were now surrounding homes with massive firepower on trigger ready alert for any, and I mean any suspicious movement.

This escalation of power and authority only rattled the devil inside who missed his court appearance and was only charged with damage to property in the first place. This “overkill” mindset and military operation tactic only widened the gap between trust and threat within law-abiding towns where the “accidental shooting” while serving a summons was becoming commonplace and the barrier between citizens and their armed LEO’s was widening by the month.

The inherent danger of this tectonic shift in America is that the presumption of peace, the belief that most citizens are good people and that they have simple “safety and security” needs, has been lost. It has been replaced with huge miscalculations by police administrators who bought the federal enforcement example of overwhelming force creates total submission with minimum casualties. Here again is the military mindset of mission pending, mission underway, mission accomplished. The military has one objective….to destroy utterly and completely the enemy’s ability to wage war or threaten to do so. This has never been the mission of the police. Successful police operations included preventing crime, reducing crime and using the law as the sole weapon in bringing the lawless to justice. The only place the military and the police had some common ground was in the rare instances of armed resistance by “the criminal enemy.” At that moment, military tactics were employed. Collateral damage was NOT acceptable to police agencies whether it was property loss or civilian casualties. Why? Because those same officers had to face their communities the next day and give an account for what they had done and why it happened. Military commanders simply order the mission forward and know there is going to be a mess when it’s over. They load up and go back to the base. No explanations, no apologies, only destruction.

That is exactly why police agencies have until the past fifteen years or so, been very careful as to how they planned and executed assaults within the communities they serve. Times have changed. Here is where we are headed.

With “terrorism” unrest, a criminal invasion of our southern border, and a nation sitting on pins and needles waiting for the next--possibly nuclear attack on our nation by Islamic forces--a “justifiable” shift to military readiness at all enforcement levels is now the norm.
We have been forced by world events to “accept” this likely permanent move away from peace officers to military style SWAT/HRT teams. It is now almost universal up through the state level. The culture of compassion, assistance, common sense agreements among neighbors with Officer Burks officiating, is almost gone. We will most likely see an increasingly armor plated police presence in our towns, with black fatigued, face mask wearing members of the local department. They will be carrying machine guns, waiting for anyone to step out of line and begin the deadly dance of “us against them” confrontations over highway checkpoints and the familiar demand, “where are your papers.”

Only when we demand a change at the city, county and state level, will we have the possibility of avoiding the ultimate nightmare. When martial law does begin, will we have peace officers in our streets, or the ghosts of the Waffen SS on patrol. We MUST require that Officer Burks pin his badge on with honor, dignity, integrity, and genuine love for his community and the precious lives within it. Our future as a peaceful nation is at stake. Street warfare will mean we will have all failed those who handed us a Republic in 1789. God help us to succeed before the clock runs out.

By Greg Evensen, author of “The Sovereignty Papers” copyright 2007.
Please use with permission.