Some steps to cleaning up police problems:

[Glassunion]

13. 2 & 3

"Generalized condemnation of the Police"

Perhaps the better suggestion would be why do the police need to drag all that wicked military equipment out for every little search, arrest warrant, or junkie's bad tips?

Hedgehogs... They are illegal in my state (the only one BTW). Why would they need armored vehicles, assault rifles, and whatnot to serve a warrant on someone illegally breeding hedgehogs?

How about if you violate city code for not having natural gas service? You know, cause you can't afford the bill. Should the county Tactical Unit swoop in, raid your house and shoot your dog?

These are not anecdotal incidents. Why has there been a 1,500% increase in SWAT team use in the past 20 years? Has there been an increase of tactical situations? In Maryland alone a SWAT team is used about 4.5 times a day. That sure sounds like Maryland is overflowing with tactical situations. However only 6% of the deployments were for tactical situations like barricades, bank robberies, hostage situations, etc... Yet more than 50% were used for misdemeanor and non-serious felonies.