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The police have not become militarized. Mr. Balko is a first rate kook who is completely unaware of the extent of his ignorance.

First, LE is and always has been a paramilitary structure. Second, LE has become a lot more reticent about use of force since the 1930s. There are plenty of photos and other documentation of LE agencies using honest to goodness real belt fed machine guns 80-90 years ago. The only place of which I am aware where anything like it is standard is on the patrol boats that Texas DPS uses in a specific area where the level of violent assaults on both them and private citizens is staggeringly high. I think they are M240s, but that's not my skill set.

Look at the uniforms that so many ignorantly think are appropriate. From where do you think those are derived? That's right, 1950s military dress uniforms, and before that, 1920s dress uniforms, and before that ... . And those uniforms are both unsafe and horrid items in which to work. Although the military had flak jackets and the like, light body armor came first to LE. The stuff that causes so much whining, like utility uniforms, and jumpsuits, and riot gear - all protective gear appropriate to the workplace. LE does not have "tanks" - those are (light) trucks (sorry - truck driver bias) with some amount of armor. Protective gear, appropriate to the encounter. Did I have an issued helmet? Yup. Carried it in my trunk. An uncomfortable annoying piece of gear; until I went to an incident in which bottles were being thrown. Then it was priceless. I was the only one who had it with me; as far as I saw, everyone else left theirs in their locker where it was worthless.

We do not use most of the tactics of an infantry unit, for example. The LE personnel most critical of the claim that LE is militarized are those who have actually served in combat arms functions, especially the Marine 0311s and Army 11Bs (infantry) who trained and fought in that role. My friends with such backgrounds are very critical of the claim, because they are familiar with both contexts and know very well the difference. (I don't; while I study such things for lots of good reasons, Uncle Sam knew better than to take me as a JAG officer, let alone anything combat arms.)

As for the Guard: even if the personnel deployed are trained as MPs, they generally will not have a lot of training directly related to the civil disturbance crowd control function. This is true even of those who are trained in the Corrections side of military LE, because almost all of their training is related to a different mission (the law related to use of force in corrections is different from that in the street; 8th/14th amendment vs. 4th, in simple crude terms, and in many states the statutory authority is different). I am not familiar enough with the UCMJ to know if they have different statutory standards for the two settings, and their actions will be probably be driven mostly by state law since this is a State mission.

It is my understanding that the Guard units called up will not be front line deployed, but mostly securing the command post (and force protection of that nature is part of the MP skill set from what I am told). A friend with nearly 20 years of active and Guard time, and 25-ish in LE, told me that he is concerned for the safety of those troops because if they are trained as badly as his unit was for such a mission (he was infantry, so not a fair comparison), and subject to the same political crud that has hamstrung the response so far, they are essentially targets.

SLCPD should have been left in there, as they have the skill set and legal authority that MSHP does not, and likely the Guard will not either.

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NHI, 10-8.