Something I've been curious about & would like to read more on: seems to me one of the major factors in the militarization of police is America's insane lack of gun restrictions. Police go into every single encounter thinking that they could be shot because *it's true*.
I mean, literally anybody could have a gun & be upset enough to use it -- a traffic stop, a domestic abuse call, even just a routine patrol. How could you police an insane society like that without becoming paranoid & violent?
So I'm wondering how (or whether) the defund-the-police movement is connecting up with gun-law reformers. Seems like they're properly part of a package. Is this a thing?
Systemic racism & the legacy of slavery, the rapid post-70s rise in income inequality, the "drug war," the increasing fetishization of guns, & the militarization of US police all seem of a piece, part of the same tangled knot of dysfunctions. What a mess.
