This is a great article about the use of police force. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/radley-balko/police-militarization-use-of-force-swat-raids_b_1123848.html?page=1 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/radley-balko/police-militarization-use-of-force-swat-raids_b_1123848.html?page=1)
It goes into some of the history of how use of force has been escalating for 3 decades.
Great article, even if the facts presented are somewhat disturbing. Who was it who said "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely"...
At this point, it wouldn't surprise me if they replaced all quote unquote "civilian" police forces with SWAT forces, so that the government could have their own storm troopers to uphold law and order; y'know, like that guy from Germany, whatever his name was.