Posse Comitatus...who needs it?

Against U.S. law to use the military to police civilian populations? No problem.

Most civilian police agencies are barely distinguishable these days from military units.

All that differentiates most police departments from U.S. military services these days is that local cops don't yet have fighter jets, bombers or war ships.

Armaments and force-protection tactics are nearly identical. Devotion to mission (violently subduing suspects) is primary. Public safety too often is secondary. Any mission cops engage in -- even serving warrants for relatively minor violations, for example -- is deemed more important than any harm that might result....kicking in the door at the wrong house, for example, or mistakenly shooting the occupants...or violently throwing innocent bystanders to the ground in "clear and hold" type actions.

Mistakes are tolerated because get-tough politicians, including lots of judges, don't want to be seen as being weak on crime. None of them appear to worry they'll be accused of being weak on civil liberties. So, as I recently heard an off-duty policeman tell his companions at a sports bar, even if the cops screw you over, who are you going to complain to?

The Constitution has lost its footing. Even the president and attorney general seem to have more respect for toilet paper than that tired old document written centuries ago by men who never had to concern themselves with "islamo facists."

Local cops don't yet have sentencing guidelines like the ones federal cops use to coerce confessions. "Confess and get probation or piss us off by making us take you to trial and you're looking at 30 years." And the state courts haven't yet been as eager to write local cops a blank check. But one by one, checks and restraints on "law enforcement" are being stripped away.

More cases will be disposed of through "plea agreements." Trials, which are expensive, time consuming and require the preparation of cases capable of withstanding scrutiny, will continue to give way to highly leveraged "plea negotiations."

The sad, steady march toward a police state continues.