Honestly, in the area I live in, we don't see much for armed police. But given what the police who I've SEEN armed have been dealing with? I don't blame them one damned bit for having the gear. If I had to go deal with those crowds, I'd want that gear too. Yes, there are good cops, and there are bad cops, but for the most part (meaning not all the time due to bad cops, but most of the time) a cop who doesn't see you doing anything wrong WON'T DO ANYTHING TO YOU. So, unless you're associating with people who aren't a good idea ("protesters" for example), or doing things that you know (or at least SHOULD know) aren't exactly kosher, an officer isn't going to bother you! Amazing how this works! And yet, people continue to do things that they KNOW are wrong and/or illegal, and then wanna get confrontational if not outright violent when the police step in, as is their job.

And now, for the trigger to all of it, the infamous race card. The "Oh I get profiled because I'm black." Well, yeah, I can't say I blame the police for that thinking. And here's why.

Demographics of the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

According to this (yes, possibly not 100% accurate, as it is Wiki), blacks in 2010 only made up roughly 12.6% of the population. Definitely a minority, no arguments there. But here's where it gets tricky.

FBI — Table 43a

That is an FBI supplied table of arrest made in 2010, separated by race. Going by percentages on the right hand side.

Murder and non-negligent manslaughter? 48.7% were committed by blacks. 12.6% of the population. Nearly HALF of the murders. So either blacks are proving to have a FAR lower respect for life in general, or the whiteys that are committing murder are doing a HELL of a lot better job of hiding it.

Forcible rape. 31.8% committed by blacks. Again a much higher number than one should be seeing out of a 12% minority.

Robbery. 55% committed by blacks. Yikes.

Aggravated assault? 33.5%

The list goes on and on, and while yes, the majority of (most) crimes are committed by whites, whites make up 72% of the population in 2010. Logically speaking, if the numbers were even, they should be doing 72% of the crimes. And yet a rather large chunk out of nearly all of the different types of crimes listed, are being perpetrated by blacks. Is it any wonder that someone's going to have to take a different approach to dealing with them? There's a statistically MUCH higher chance of the black man deciding his "best" option is to cut and run, or shoot.

In conclusion, am I saying that blacks are inherently bad people? Not at all. I've known a good number of black people in my life, and quite honestly, the majority have been pretty cool people. But to just show up somewhere and have to deal with a MASS of people who are all black and are being whipped into a frenzy by people like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson (not to mention the "gentle giant's" own parents), I have NO qualms about having armed police involved. In fact, I applaud the decision. I will argue that police are too militarized when every time I get pulled over there's a gun pointed at me. So far though, at worst I've gotten "Do you know why I pulled you over?" In order to figure out if overall the police are too militarized, you'll have to first figure out how "militarized" your criminals are. Molotovs, gunshots, a FAR greater number of (wrongly) ticked off people bearing down on a significantly smaller number of Law Enforcement Officers. Only a few things outweight numbers. Superior strategy. Superior technology. Superior training. Police can only get so many helping hands in order to deal with things. And then they gotta deal with everyone else jumping their asses for being "too militarized."

Being "too militarized," or going home in a body bag. Which one would you pick? I know which one I would, and I don't blame the police for choosing it either.