How US police became a standing army

Worthwhile essay about the militarization of US cops:

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/how-police-became-a-standing-army/

“Just before the American Revolution, it wasn’t the stationing of British troops in the colonies that irked patriots in Boston and Virginia; it was the England’s decision to use the troops for everyday law enforcement.”

... the courts used the drug war to chip away at the protection that warrants once gave to Americans’ Fourth Amendment right to be secure in their persons and houses from unreasonable search and seizure. When serving a warrant, law-enforcement officers were traditionally required to knock and announce themselves and give residents time to allow them entry before the police could resort to breaking down the door. But in the 2003 decision United States v. Banks, the Supreme Court ruled that the primary concern should not be the amount of time residents would reasonably need to answer the door, but how much time it might take for them to start disposing of the evidence of drugs. That ruling effectively gave police the power to serve every drug warrant as if they were taking down Pablo Escobar.

Radley Balko is one of the foremost writers on this subject. Read some of his other work (such as Rise of the Warrior Cop), and I think you will agree with me that the US is WELL on its way to becoming a police state.