To be fair, I've seen some of those miniatures cases up close, and they do kind of look like gun cases. The response was over the top, but I can understand someone getting confused and calling the police about them.

so someone suspected something wrong going on and called police. police acted on a tip. i can see why it might be ridiculous by whoever called police, but why police itself is ridiculed for that?

The criticism is due to the fact that they burst into the room with guns drawn. It was an over-reaction to a completely unknown situation that was about 99.9% benign.

The police's mantra of "overwhelming display of control and power" can certainly be blamed for that.

In addition, the original poster didn't indicate whether or not a warrant was served before entry -- is the police required to present a warrant while acting on such tips?

> The criticism is due to the fact that they burst into the room with guns drawn. It was an over-reaction to a completely unknown situation that was about 99.9% benign.

The cops received a report about armed individuals- that warrants an armed, yet retrained response, no?

Not necessarily, if the report has a high chance of being false.

On any given day, the odds that I will use one of my fire extinguishers is very very small, ditto the gun I carry concealed almost every time I walk out the door (have never used either, in decades). The odds that cops with such a referral will encounter weapons is a whole lot higher.

I suspect you're right, sadly. The reason it is especially likely is because of the same laws that allow you have your gun.

The chances of someone being armed and dangerous in general goes way up.

I'm not as sure. One could argue that if you removed guns from the equation while still retaining a population prone to violence the police would be in an even worse posture, because up close edged weapons are very dangerous and they don't wear stab vests (which I suppose they could switch to, but I'm told they're even more uncomfortable than soft ballistic body armor, which is bad enough). Prone to violence in that as I recall our edged weapon murder rates exceeds most of "the developed world's".

Watch Tueller Drill video, then factor in the police having to close with someone with an edged weapon, an option I as a civilian can almost always avoid. I say worse, because the public generally doesn't realize the danger people armed with knives poise.

The experience of Brittian is suggestive, it:

Started getting serious about gun control a century ago (fear of the Left, becoming panic with the Bolshevik's win).

Effectively outlawed the use of guns for self-defense in the '50s (courts) and '60 (statutory law).

Then went almost all the way to banning guns that might be useful for self-defense a few decades ago.

Hasn't helped violence, hasn't made much of a dent in "gun violence" as I recall, but could be wrong, and now the obsession is with knife control.

Which suggests a people problem, not an object problem.

(Then again, when the police are nationally centralized and used as a weapon to punish areas that vote "incorrectly" by mostly withdrawing their protection, you've got bigger problems, but again people problems.)

So, choose a different approach because it's an expensive, white neighborhood?

Expensive, yes. White, irrelevant. The solution to racial inequality isn't to punish white (or Asian, or any other "lucky" race) more.

we don't know what police been told. if neighbor told "they got machine guns and looks like are going to slaughter our neighborhood" - this is enough to break door with guns drawn in my opinion.

Trust, but verify.

Because P(gun|tip*neighborhood) is very small.