Methinks Americans have become paranoid and especially the cops have become ultra cowards. I get it that most Americans are afraid of another terrorist attack or mass shooting but really, mathematically your chance of encountering any of them is less than winning a Powerball jackpot.

Every time I hear news like a bridge shut down for hours because some homeless guy left his backpack, or an entire neighborhood on lockdown because some stupid middle schooler wrote shit on FB, I'm disgusted with this national paranoia and overreacting "first responders." Land of the free, home of the brave indeed.

The paranoid police and the "see something say something" do-gooders do not usually know the whole story, whether someone's engaging in a typical homeless survival behavior, or making an in-joke that could only be understood in its context, or someone's cultural background or whether someone's got mental illness. Then they act like cowboys and next thing you know your town's war zone and someone's either murdered by cops or in jail for no good reason whatsoever.

I believe (without getting into conspiracy theories) the police response SOP on alleged mass shooting or explosives is never designed to minimize disruptions and mass panic, but rather amplify them and to condition the populace into a quasi martial law.

@salixlucida Imagine if there were ever a coordinated attempt to intentionally leverage that en masse.

Paranoia? Or a great excuse to boss people around, look important, and raise the budget for new killtoys?

@shadowfirebird I think it is a politically-induced paranoia in order to enhance police powers and of course more taxes diverted from other government services to the police departments.

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