Letter: Demilitarize local law enforcement

We know we can’t eliminate police departments altogether, but we do need to demilitarize local law enforcement.After 9/11, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent billions of dollars in combat-grade armaments, body armor, sometimes tanks and vast amounts of cash to departments all over the country, and the whole mindset of policing began to change. Police officers were trained like the military personnel being shipped to war zones.Instead of weapons of destruction, we should be spend