Are police being weaponized to control the masses rather than serve them?

This is a very sad chapter in human history, that with the advent of all of the modern communications and technologies available to the developed countries, they have chosen to harden their police agencies with military-style weapons and tactics. It is a further barrier between the police and the population they serve, to distance them, to make them unapproachable, and to very much increase the potential for harm caused if their power is unleashed inappropriately. It is understandable that when the civilian population may obtain access to semi-automatic or automatic weapons of great firepower, that police feel the need to compensate by having such capabilities themselves, but this carries with it a greater focus on violent solutions and can easily get out of hand. Most police work is a kind of social work with an implied force behind it that acts as a calming influence in many situations because everyone understands they are a force to be reckoned with. When this is done in a military fashion, it goes beyond social work and becomes a kind of weapon of the state on display, and the mentality shifts as well to protect government interests first and foremost, and this runs counter to their primary purpose, which is to protect and serve, as the fact that many have adopted that slogan attests. When the agenda shifts to preserving the needs of the state, to maintain order, to protect property, to eradicate the criminal element and, in effect, to punish the miscreants among society, that is taking away the focus from the individual who, in many ways, is suffering and has many problems to contend with. To meet with a bullet because of their human failings is a further tragedy and an active injustice in its own right. The militarization of police departments and tactics is a further dehumanization of society on display for all to see. The more it becomes the norm, the greater the civilian population becomes at risk. This can easily get out of hand and the public will not only be defenseless, but will likely be in great danger, if only from collateral damage of heavy-handed police actions with such high-powered weapons and a desire to shoot first and ask questions later as part of the mentality.