I need to say something that’s been bothering me for a while, and I’m saying it as a Marine Corps veteran who leans center-right. We’ve slow-faded into accepting militarized police as normal, and nobody seems to notice or care. I’ve worn the gear. The helmet, the tactical vest, the whole kit. And I can tell you from experience, it changes you. There’s a psychological shift that happens when you strap that stuff on. You feel different. You carry yourself different. James Tate, a Marine Corps veteran and self-described center-right commentator.

I want to preface this by saying that I started writing it last February and somehow didn’t post it. I’m posting it now because I just argued with a friend that Trump is too much of a buffoon to be a danger to our country, and, re-reading the post below, I realize how wrong I was.

The first time I remember seeing a cop in tactical gear was on February 28, 1993. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) was raiding the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, and the aforementioned cop was directing traffic away from a turnoff on Highway 84 about half a mile away. A lone cop who seemed to be out in the middle of nowhere, directing traffic, dressed like he was getting ready to go into Iraq during the Gulf War. He was even wearing a helmet. At the time, I thought it was ridiculous, pointless, and annoying, and up until very recently, I still felt that way.

I want to add that I wasn’t at Waco; I only saw it on television. I wasn’t in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 7, 2026, either, when Renee Good was publicly executed by ICE Agent Jonathan Ross; I only saw it on my computer screen. This time, I didn’t see the wearing of a military combat uniform as ridiculous or pointless; I saw it as scary. Now, I realize that scaring people is the point. When Trump’s ICE thugs executed Alex Pretti, a nurse who worked in the ICU at a Minneapolis VA hospital, on January 24, 2026, I think terrifying people is a better descriptor than just scaring people.

This isn’t primarily about immigration; Obama deported a lot more people, about 1.59 million formal deportations in his first term, 600,000 more people than the first Trump administration. Wearing combat uniforms is about showing who is in control and, more importantly. sowing fear. The fact that the ICE thug called Renee Good a “fucking bitch” after he shot her three times is a red flag for all of us. ICE agents dressed in combat fatigues are not here to protect us; they are here to scare us.