The over zealous use of military equipment to respond to incidents in the last few years is staggering. The Ferguson police forces responding were clearly under trained in the use of this equipment and had few intentions of keeping the peace. Rather they aimed to intimidate protesters and criminalize those supporting Brown.
What is also frightening is the overuse of SWAT teams to now service search warrants instead of responding to actual emergency situations. In 2005 alone there were 50,000 raids which is an incredibly drastic increase of use from SWAT's early days in the 1970's and 80's which ranged from a few hundred to 3,000 raids.
This longing to be a cowboy has criminalized the American citizen and created an "us" vs "them" mentality among police forces which must be stopped.