Rambos Among Us

There are a number of perfectly reasonable reasons to be concerned about the growing militarization of domestic U.S. police departments, which increasingly rely on military tactics, equipment and former personnel in the course of their day-to-day policing. Nearly as disconcerting is their rationale for doing so, John Rambo:

In the Indianapolis suburbs, officers said they needed a mine-resistant vehicle to protect against a possible attack by veterans returning from war.

“You have a lot of people who are coming out of the military that have the ability and knowledge to build I.E.D.’s and to defeat law enforcement techniques,” Sgt. Dan Downing of the Morgan County Sheriff’s Department told the local Fox affiliate, referring to improvised explosive devices, or homemade bombs.

One hopes that Brian Dennehy has taken every possible precaution.