Taiwanese Special Forces
Taiwanese police officers
With the increase toward further "security" and consequential police militarization, law enforcement officers have recently more often resembled soldiers or stormtroopers instead of the peace keepers that the people of their communities, or nation, would expect them to be.

With the ever expanding usage of drones, armored vehicles, and high-capacity automatic weapons, it's no wonder that there is growing paranoia and fear toward those who sport a shiny badge and uniform, and other authority figures who carry out the will of the government. Taiwan has taken their special forces gear to a whole new level of scary. The uniforms, recently unveiled by the Taiwanese government, feature bullet-proof armor and a terrifying and extremely concealing ballistic face mask.

The armor is designed to protect the wearer from close range shots, but critics have said that they more closely resemble something from a horror movie than they do any sort of police officer or soldier. They may not have any peripheral vision, but they successfully achieve the intended intimidation factor. It is alleged that the masks can shield the soldiers from close-range shots from a .44 magnum, and that the mask distributes the impact of the bullet over a condensed surface area. One has to wonder what the restricted vision will do for their combat effectiveness though, or how it might hold up against a molotov cocktail, which currently seems to be the weapon of choice by violent demonstrators.

Taiwanese Special Forces 2
Shouldn't their faces be identifiable if they are going to be held accountable for their actions? Or are we supposed to hold the entire group accountable for the actions of a few? The soldiers' vision is exchanged for the ability to avoid being wounded from bullets, shrapnel and other ballistic threats to the face. It is made of Kevlar, and padding covering the forehead, cheeks and chin. It is actually recommended that those who wear these masks shouldn't expect to proficiently jump, climb or crawl while wearing the gear because it will impede their ability to do so.

With the continued growth of extreme economic disparity worldwide, the increased prevalence of those suffering from poor living conditions, and with limited options available to them for help, there has understandably been an increase in protests and demonstrations worldwide. Millions of individuals are educating themselves about their nations representatives, and more rapidly accepting the truth that their public representatives do not have their best interest set as their main objective. Those representatives instead want to keep servicing and benefiting multi-billion dollar corporations and international banking cartels, turning their back on the entire reason they have employment as a representative in the first place. With the rise in frequency of social demonstrations, there has been a rise toward a more invasive security and police state, and further militarization of domestic police forces.

These representatives of the people seem to be forgetting an inconvenient [for them] truth: that the collective citizenry is where they derive every vestige of their authority from. Worrisome is the trend of government and authority figures who continue creating an ever-widening division between them and the people, fostering an "us versus them" mentality. Most of the time authority figures working on behalf of the state are more of a threat to freedom and security than any concerned citizen, against whom they commonly initiate aggression and who they seem to always consider a potential terrorist.