Domestic Security

In his 2008 campaign, Obama said,  "We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded." At the time, the Army alone had nearly 500,000 troops, not including reserves or the National Guard. In 2007, the Defense Department's budget was $439 billion. Now this was a very strange, and generally under reported and under investigated, pledge. But, when the fighting started in Ferguson, some very well armed and well provisioned men showed up as police. This was unlike anything the public has seen by domestic police before.
The meaning of all this, as usual with this president, is unclear. But the behavior of the police in the last months, along with these other hints, implies one thing for sure: The police, at least, and perhaps the government itself, is unsettled by its citizenry and, perhaps, afraid of them.