Instapundit and Radley Balko have been on the warpath for a while against "no-knock" raids.

They should be, and so am I.

It's amazing how militarized our police force has become. The perception of strength and protection is certainly warranted in certain environs. However, I see around in my small suburban city that I live in a lot of the cops stomping around in their military gear, on a Monday, in the middle of the afternoon.

I headed out to the corner convenience store about 3 a.m. one night - no more then a 2 minute drive. My Ford Mustang at the time had a balky headlight switch that you had to fidget with to get the dash and tail lights to come on - otherwise the headlights worked fine either way. Well, on the way back home I flicked the lights on but figuring I was just gonna whip on home didn't bother to much with the switch. As I pull up on my street a cop comes in behind me and turns on his lights. I was literally 5 houses away from my house so I kept going up a little ways and just pulled into my driveway. Sorta a, "hey I own a house and pay taxes and not just some punk kid cruisin about" message. Well, they about had a fit because I didn't stop immediately. They had their hands on the guns and lurching in a shooters position as they came up on my car. I just couldn't believe they were actually in the frame of mind that they were going to have to shoot me over what really amounted to a broken tail light. They even got a sergeant to come out and yell at me for not stopping. I mean I coulda picked up a rock and threw it back to the point where they turned their lights on. I told them that for starters they were standing on my property and will address me with some measure of respect as long as they continue to do so. Shoulda seen the look on their faces when I flicked the headlight switch with my finger and the taillights came on. Then, I told them that they really need to find something else to do to entertain themselves or don't schedule so many cops to work on week nights. Finally, when it came to the recent election there was a proposition to give the police department another 2.5 million to expand the department. I voted no since they obviously have enough cops as it is with not much anything better to do.