Except when the police come to the wrong address and burst in with no knock and shoot you dead, sitting in your easy chair watching TV. There are just a lot of police officers who I wouldn't trust to tie their own shoes. What we need is not no cops, we need much smarter and more ethical cops. Is that possible?

And above all else, we need some sort of cost for individual cops who do something wrong. They kill innocent folks, their family sues, and the taxpayers pay out. Nothing happens to the bad cop, except maybe paid vacation. How about pay cuts? You screw up and get $500 less every month. Screw up again, another $500. Arrest a journalist: $500. Push a senior down who is approaching to ask a question: $500.

This would actually get rid of the bad cops because they would seek another job that paid more.

There is a lot of folks talking as if what Trump is trying to do with the military is something new to Trump. That would be an error. I heard one of the Generals talking about it and he said there have been over 20 instances where the government has used troops to deal with citizen problems. I remember, once, when they sent tanks into Washington, DC to put down a riot during the Vietnam war. I had a friend who watched that one and was also a veteran of that war. He said that there was a line of tanks, running down the highway, on its way to take care of problems in Washington, DC. He also said that the tanks had their guns leveled. This is when they don't have their guns pointed up to the sky but are level are ready to go. (that REALLY pissed him off!)

At least Trump hasn't tried to order tanks in - YET.......

The last time regular troops were used in Washington DC was 1932.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/06/07/us-army-demonstrations-washington-305913

Perhaps what you saw were national guardsmen?

Not really, take a look at 1968. Federal troops were deployed in DC and to other Federal buildings during several of the Anti-War protests and Race Riots in the late 60s. Agreed it was to Federal Property, but Federal Troops were deployed. Federal troops were on city streets for the riots.

In 1970, while stationed at Ft. Meade, MD., I underwent training for riot and crowd control along with a couple of thousand or so additional troops stationed at Ft. Meade. Though never deployed the destination was to be Wash D.C. I do mean active duty federal troops, active duty Army, the war fighting Army, not National Guard.

I didn't see it, a friend did and he may have been involved. I do know he was pretty upset and said all the guys driving them had just returned from Vietnam. He also had photos of the tanks on the highway.

Modern tanks destroy highways and city roads. That was the main reason DC said no to Trump's big military parade a couple of years ago. There are some pretty big troop carriers with tires that would be okay. But not the treaded vehicles. I think some helicopter pilots are going to get in trouble over low hovering in DC for crowd control. Illegal flight height as well as violation of the Geneva Conventions for using a red cross-marked helicopter in one case.

Federal troops on federal land or facilities is a different issue (hell, the Marines and Army have troops at the white house and a few other places as a standard measure).

I thought we were talking about the use of federal troops in municipal areas of DC.

Years ago My son and his friend were admiring a tank that the national guard had parked across the alley in a parking lot for citizens to admire and sign up. The two guys had driven it from the national guard place across town. The treads seemed to be heavy rubber. Anyway, the two guys who brought it were spiffy in their uniforms and dealing with admiring high school girls. My son, and his friend, climbed into the tank, turned it on, and started to push and pull things. The tank duly started moving. The kids (I think they were 10 or less at the time) were utterly clueless but happy as clams. The two guys, I was told, just about had heart attacks but they got in and got it stopped.

Neither my wife, nor myself, could bring ourselves to even yell at the boys - we always thought they just did what boys do when given a chance. The police were the ones that called us and asked us to pickup our kids and explained what happened. Nobody got hurt and that was, pretty much where it ended. We also apologized to the national guard guys for our kids getting them into trouble.

I have to idea why I am putting this here but it seems somehow pertinent and I have absolutely no idea why <G>