Its interesting that today, the cop style is bald head and military uniforms. Back in the 1980s and 1990s it was a full head of hair and mustache usually and professional less threatening uniforms.

I think the style and even attitude has a lot do with the fact that so many cops today are ex-military, verses the 1980s and 1990s. With 9-11 and so many people going into the military and coming back out with no skills except law enforcement related, thats where a lot of ex-military people went and now the shaved head from the military has become the predominate style in at least urban law enforcement. Add the fact that many departments have gone away from professional looking uniforms to military style BDUs and such and you have a very militarized police force in many departments. I personally don't like myself. I'm ex-LE, so I know why they wanted to do that and I understand the whole Officer safety thing, but its also about projecting an image and historically, civilian law enforcement has always been very distinct from the military for very clear reasons that date back to our revolution.

But thanks to a lot of changes that begun prior to 9-11 and dramatically escalated after 9-11 the lines between occupying military and civilian police and more blurred than ever.

I think the fact that we accept that being in the military somehow develops the skills to be in law enforcement is exactly what is wrong with law enforcement today.

I’m sure this wasn’t meant to be a serious discussion, but it struck a cord with me.