Officer Friendly is getting more unfriendly every day.
The Dallas sheriff has acquired an MRAP (Drudge calls it a tank, but it isn’t), an armored SUV straight off the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. They’ll use it for, uh, serving warrants:
“‘Having a tactical vehicle will not only provide warrants execution with the equipment to assist in performing their jobs but will provide an overall safety arch,’ Chief Deputy Marlin Suell wrote to commissioners.”
Meanwhile, Austin PD has thankfully fired a trigger-happy cop for shooting at a traffic stop back in May. Instead of waiting behind the wheel, the stoppee stupidly got out and approached the officer. But, come on, that deserves a warning shot? And where else might the bullet have gone?
Like I’ve said before, these days the safest way to approach Officer Friendly—if you absolutely have to—is with both your hands in the air. But in a traffic stop, stay in your car, stupid!
And it would be smart to put both hands on the top of the steering wheel where they can be seen. Officer Friendly is really touchy.
UPDATE: Another example of police militarization and, once more, it’s in Texas. Although I sometimes wonder about Dallas County.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 
A friend and I were talking about this sort of think recently while on the (abortive) trip to get his car out of the shop.
A chief of police just down the road in West Columbia is in a heap of trouble for taking drugs from the evidence lockup and Lord knows where else, and having child porn.
Other officers of the LAW get their little asses in cracks over other and similar things, all the time.
But the small cities that hire cops don’t seem to do much background checking. Same thing happens with teachers. When they get in serious trouble, it often comes out that they have records of doing bad things in other towns, only getting fired, then moving down the road to another small town where their artfully doctored resume is their only recommendation.
Similar to politicians and bureaucrats. Evidently losing their cush job is considered enough punishment.
I expect you’re right. The trigger-happy Austin cop will just move on to another, smaller department elsewhere. But, you know, in this age of Google, those small town school superintendents and police chiefs have no excuse for not doing their jobs.
Well, they should sell the surpluses armored cars to the citizens as well now. Imagine taking your iPhone to the Apple shop for repairs in an APC – should create an impression on the nerds.
As for that traffic stop shooting, I was sure that it was an Israeli driver that got out of the car. ( Usually here the driver is one to start the aggressive behavior against the cop. In the hope he will get off without a ticket. )
Took me one experience in US to remain in the car with hands on the steering wheel from that time on. Anyhow, it’s unfair to blame the cop too much. One never knows what the next driver hides under his shirt.
With the rapid militarization of the police these days, I expect that we’ll soon see surplus M-1 Abrams tanks being given to the local PD, assuming that any are left over after giving so many to the Egyptians.
I certainly do blame the cop for shooting at the motorist. Throwing down on him and demanding he halt and reach for the sky could have been plenty.
Although the more I think about this, the more I think it’s not Officer Friendly that’s to blame. It’s the politicos who are out of control. They could stop all this militarization immediately if they wanted to. Apparently they do not.