POLICE OR SOLDIERS?

Yesterday's Waterloo Region Record carried this following commentary by Branka Marijan titled "Why are our police becoming like soldiers?". The Toronto Police Service has ordered 51 military style rifles known as C8s. They are manufactured by Colt here in Kitchener, Ontario. The question of course seems to be that our police have never been undergunned with any local badguys so why are they further arming when the public pressure is on them to de-escalate not go the other way. Mr. Marijan warns of creeping militarization ans advises that it is occurring across Canada. This includes armoured vehicles and even in Vancouver a Military Liason Unit which interacts both with the Canadian forces and even the United Styaes National Guard. All of this seems problematic when the public see police issues of lack of communication and inability to deal with paersons in crisis without killing them.