But de-escalation training is expensive, whereas equipment is often given almost for free from ex-military surplus or paid for from "anti-terrorism" federal funds.

Police in other Western countries receive significantly longer training courses than US police do. This is an issue rarely discussed in this topic. If people want de-escalation, they need to fund the longer training regime and more importantly pay for it.

>ex-military surplus

maybe reallocating funds from military to de-escalation training would reduce surplus and improve police image and effectiveness.

(disclaimer: I don't know what I'm talking about)

Has it really come to vilifying a haircut? The haircut is not to blame for anything here, it is all the people who may happen to wear it.

Short hair is pragmatic, but more importantly, it is a personal preference. Nobody should be criticized for wearing short hair. Doing that makes you no better than people who talk about "long-haired hippies" disparagingly.

It isn't just the haircut on its own. If there wasn't a history of this:

http://www.forgetthebox.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Ameri...

Like say the police looked more like this:

http://cdn.caughtoffside.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Swed...

Then haircut wouldn't matter. But I have yet to meet an American cop that didn't have a "military approved" haircut.

Off topic, but this brought to mind an amusing anecdote about Hunter S. Thompson. When he ran for Sheriff's office of Aspen, CO, he shaved his head bald and referred to the (ex-army, Republican) incumbent he was running against as "my long-haired opponent".