What do you get when you equip mall cops with military hardware? A banana republic.

The proposed legislation is now in committee. If it’s passed and signed into law by the governor, state and municipal agencies in New Hampshire will be barred from buying or even accepting free offers of “military style equipment” for police use, except with the approval of the assembled citizenry at a public town meeting.

i’m sooo proud. AMERICA!!!!!

Paramilitary Police Are Changing Law Enforcement in the Suburbs. SWAT teams, riot gear, armored vehicles, and other super-sized police equipment and tactics are spreading into smaller spaces and conflicts.

the difference between rank amateurs with a rambo complex, playing with toys several sizes too large for them, and professionals trained in deescalation is enormous.

The Missouri Highway Patrol relieved the Ferguson PD today. Captain Johnson, a Ferguson native, is leading the new security. He started out by removing the tactical units, setting up a media staging center, vowed not to blockade the streets, ordered police working crowd control to take off their gas masks — and marched along with the protesters himself.

(That’s not him in this picture, by the way — Captain Johnson is black. Not sure who the cop in this picture is, but apparently quite a few of the members of the Missouri Highway Patrol marched alongside the protesters today. ETA: Here’s a picture of Captain Johnson.

There’s a bunch more in the story, and I recommend you read it, because it’s such an antidote to the news stories of the past few days. It appears that there’s one cop, at least, who still remembers what the job is all about.

Captain Ronald S. Johnson: Doing it right.