Remember the movie Judge Dredd from 1995?
Looks like those uniforms are coming back into fashion . . . at least in South America. According to Gizmodo, Peruvian riot control police were on the streets recently, looking like this:
Gizmodo comments that they look like "Judge Dredd meets Batman". Uh-huh . . . and I've seen some over-militarized and over-enthusiastic US SWAT teams looking not too dissimilar!
I've served in a law enforcement agency and have many friends in that field, so I know that most of them are Grade-A genuine Good Guys. Nevertheless, I have to say that when cops start to look like comic-book characters, it says Bad Things about their society.
Peter
Are riot police normally low profile? If I felt a police department needed that much protection on the job, I'd be looking at designs of armor and uniforms that would cover the armor, giving a normal appearance. With riot police who normally carry a lot of other gear, I can't see this doing much to change the impression. I'd make it a different color though, standing out in the sun in that stuff will be a pain.
ReplyDeleteOne of my goals as an engineer is to design powered armor, and one design would be a suit that could be worn underneath a properly tailored suit or uniform. You'd just look particularly big.