The man in this video clip says he is a retired Marine Corps Colonel and he is speaking at Concord, NH city council meeting where he Council is considering a request from the Concord PD for armored vehicles. He draws some parallels with the time he spent in Iraq (without equipment like this) and starts to show how Homeland Security standardization of gear makes it easier for PDs to look indistinguishable from an occupying army. This is almost 4 minutes long:
One of the things that could be pared back or completely eliminated in the rush to austerity are all of the grants targeted to police like the Homeland Security Grants and the Byrne Grants.