"You can never have too much firepower"

When I read a story about police officers barrelling into a home in full-on body-armor-riot-gear with assault rifles at the ready, I think back to the hilarious (though thankfully fictitious) Detective Billy Rosewood, from the Beverly Hills Cop Movies, played excellently by Judge Reinhold (who, holy fuck!, is 53!!).

Remember, Rosewood? He had an arsenal expansive enough to arm a militia of African freedom-fighters ceremoniously scattered around his small apartment. The dude liked guns. He was good-natured and honest, but he loved the shit out of some guns.

When I see stories like the one above out of Missouri, it makes Rosewood appear less like a caricature in a buddy-action-comedy-cop flick, and more like a character study in police behavior patterns.

I mean how else do you explain this type of conduct by cops? Given that this type of crap happens all the time , can anyone honestly say this is a matter of sound policy judgments? Anyone? Or is it far more likely that instead of Rosewood being the weirdo who's "gotta talk" to his fellow officers, Taggart and Foley, many cops love guns and gear and awesome stuff even more than Reinhold's Billy.

Granted: Guns are fucking cool. I have a little bee-bee gun from when I was like 12 years old (long story) and sometimes I just hold it and point it at my tv. It's harmless, and kinda fun - a good way to de-stress. A bad-ass assault rifle, combined with head-to-toe body armor?! I get it. I get the fuck out of it. But christ on a bike, killing dogs!? Smashing into homes with kids inside!? I don't get that. And even if I did, it's not smart, safe, or anywhere in the ballpark of rational thinking.

This story, and its non-aberrational nature, should truly make every American meditate on the question of exactly what kind of society we are living in, and whether or not we "gotta talk" with the Billy Rosewood that is our regime of law enforcement policies.