impersonation embodied in this gear is intentional, i.e., marketing?
[courtesy digby]
I’m inclined to think so.
Given that policing (or, similarly, military) grants some legal sanction to exercising authority over others, I have always presumed that authoritarian personalities would be disproportionately attracted to those lines of work, and thus disproportionately represented in their ranks. Including the ranks of those making purchasing decisions and/or writing grant proposals to tap into Pentagon/Homeland Security programs that provide military surplus equipment or grant money to local law enforcement (which have been the major driver of the ongoing militarization of local law-enforcement entities).
(Disclaimer: This does NOT imply all law enforcement personnel are authoritarians. I presume many enter policing “to protect and serve” (as the noble slogan goes) their communities/nation. The Dallas Chief seems such an example. My premise is simply that a higher proportion of them probably are authoritarians than in the general population. Hard for me to imagine how it could be otherwise, absent very rigorous screening methods, which I think probably no one would claim currently exist in practice.)
It’s not hard to see what the appeal to authoritarians would be in the design of the gear pictured above. Even just the “gee whiz, cool stuff” attraction is probably significant for them.
Is this just brilliant marketing playing out?
Regardless, (like digby, I think) I find what that photo seems to say about the state of the union disturbing indeed.