It's hard to imagine the situation getting much better without greater political change. The Second Amendment has made it very difficult for police to casually come in and slap you around, and that's not a bad thing. However, when they feel that they need to arrest you, well, they're going to bring a veritable army to avoid being causalities...and that's kind of reasonable.

So what has to change? Hopefully, the non-important and trivial laws (i.e. simple drug possession) are no longer enforced. But do concessions have to be made in terms of citizen gun rights? The police would definitely think so.

Meanwhile, while this civic debate goes on, departments are funding these militarized teams. Even if laws are changed so dramatically that these heavy SWAT raids become practically unneeded...you think the middle-managers/deputy-chiefs are going to give up the funds that enlarged their staffing and armories? Or are they going to petition for more trivial laws to enforce?