this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2026
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I think the police should be de-militarized. They shouldn’t be dressed up like they’re fighting in the mountains of Afghanistan. They don’t need body armor and helmets 99% of the time. They should have revolvers instead of automatics. The reason why cops used to carry revolvers in the 20th Century is exactly because of the panicky mag dumping we see all the time today. Better yet, they may need to just carry batons like UK police and have a small force of UK-style Authorized Firearms Officers for truly high risk situations.
Those are great security policies, but what about structural changes? What's going to stop us from arriving here again?
Policing culture will change if they aren't constantly training to shoot people. I watch a lot of police cam videos and the US and UK cops handle the same situations very, very differently. If ICE didn't have guns when dealing with Good and Pretti, they would have been forced not to shoot them. It wouldn't be part of their tool set and training.
Wouldn't ICE and Border Patrol be Authorized Firearms Officers?
They really shouldn't be. They could have a small force of AFOs for very special operations. But I would imagine that 99% of situations they deal with don't require guns.
So how would we get this policy change, if not by changing the underlying structure like OP suggests?