Rand Paul: “there is a Cold War-era quote, attributed to Winston Churchill, that ``in a democracy, a knock on the door in the early…”

“there is a Cold War-era quote, attributed to Winston Churchill, that ``in a democracy, a knock on the door in the early morning is the milkman.'' In the United States, we are not supposed to fear a knock on our front door. If the police do knock on our door, we expect them to come at a reasonable hour and to respond to criminal activity with the professionalism befitting the peace officers they are. Those are the expectations of a free people, proud of its history and tradition of separating the roles between civilian law enforcement agencies and the Armed Forces--one is to keep the peace within its community, the other is to destroy foreign adversaries. By keeping those roles separate, Americans have historically built and sustained a strong bond of trust with their police officers. But, for years, the war on crime and the misguided war on drugs has looked a lot like the war on terror. Throughout our country, due to the Department of Defense's 1033 Program, law enforcement is equipped with the tools of the U.S. military, which has predictably resulted in the continued decline of the relationship between the police and those they serve. Perhaps we should discuss the kinds of machinery provided to local police departments. The 1033 Program provided to the sleepy New England town of Keene, NH, a Ballistic Engineered Armored Response Counter Attack Truck, otherwise known as a Bearcat.…”