Protect and Serve

Instapundit notes that liberals are wrongly claiming that conservatives don't care about the militarization of our police.

Yeah. The Left often assumes it knows what the right thinks.

For the record, I have a couple of my posts on the subject here and here.

I assume I have more, depending on the words used in the post.

I am a strong supporter of law and order and think the police deserve our respect and support when they serve and protect rather than clear and hold.

UPDATE: Two thoughts.

First, it doesn't require knowing whether the killing by the police officer was justified to say that it is wrong for police to look more like stormtroopers than Barney Fife.

I'm not suggesting that our police be restricted to one bullet kept in their shirt pocket. But as I've mentioned before, when I had riot control training in the National Guard, we were instructed that our job was to make people go home--not kill to protect a corner dry cleaning establishment. While armored up with shields, helmets, and flak jackets, only a few of us--kept well back--had firearms, in order to reduce the chance of an accidental or unauthorized shooting. Kent State was brought up as a cautionary tale and not avoided.

We--an actual military unit--were less militarized (and we had no armored vehicles) when it came to dealing with civilians than local police forces today. This is a trend through both Democratic and Republican governance, I'll note.

Second, as we contemplate the problems of our cities, it should be pointed out that our cities are where progressive governance is most advanced.

Sadly for their pretensions to governing as the best and brightest (and most caring), cities are the first to run out of other people's money--which is the fatal flaw of that form of governance.

UPDATE: Oh, and obviously we don't need to know whether the killing was justified to say that rioting and looting stores is not the proper response to a killing--unless your philosophy is never let a crisis go to waste (for personal profit).