Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces - Radley Balko
http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Warrior-C.../dp/1610392116

I just finished this book. Balko seems to be a left leaning libertarian, and many of his points are made by a stretch of the imagination and inference without good substantiation. Even with that weakness, he provides a simple origin of the Castle Doctrine in English Common Law, and then lays out how the past 100 years have been eroding this simple protection for citizens within their homes. Knock and announce is becoming a thing of the past and most judges and prosecutors pay lip service to their duties of checking the police in the routine use of exigent circumstances in violently entering people's homes. Sometimes the crimes the police are investigating and using these dynamic entry tactics are just preposterous. The case of Steven Seagal driving a tank into a man's living room for a "cock fighting" raid sound almost too bizarre to be true. The almost routine killing of family dogs during police activities is something most of us have seen right here in Colorado, and it is happening all too frequently around the country.

The book is easy to read and I recommend it if you are looking for information on the steady mission creep of what used to be a public service. I really recommend this book to anyone in the LE community. It isn't the end all be all, and there are faults in the book, but it gives us an interesting perspective on the career we have chosen and how it is drifting into something that, left unchecked could be seriously unhealthy for the republic and the people we are sworn to serve.

Be safe.