Depending on how you look at it, yes, we live in a police state. You live in a police state if the police are unfettered, if they take little precaution against killing a suspect, and if they hide behind laws that protect them unjustly.
If they can get away with things that others cannot, that is a little bit of a police state. If they avoid wearing body cams in order to avoid liability, yes, that is wrong. The term "suppression of evidence" comes to mind.
The case of Craig Robertson has the nation abuzz. Are the FBI no more than a modern-day gestapo? I think that takes it a little too far, but they take their rights as police officers a little too far. They are also "peace officers." They should endeavor to keep the peace. They should seek to avoid killing if it is unnecessary.
Could the FBI have gone about their arrest in a better fashion -- one that would have resulted in an arrest without Robertson being killed? How about a siege? Just wait for the guy to come out. Wait and wait. Patience. Sooner or later, he has got to come out. You knew he was setting things up for suicide by cop. You should not want to accommodate him. Perhaps, when he did come out, he would be brandishing a gun and you would have to shoot him, anyway. But, at least that would be out in the open where there would be witnesses. You don't want to hide things. You want them to be visible. You aren't there to escape the law; you are there to enforce it.
Another possibility would be to send a social worker in. Don't come in with bullhorns a blaring, and armored trucks. Send the social worker in, and, if he doesn't answer the door, let the social worker wait until Robertson came out. Don't even have the FBI within sight. Given that the neighbors probably would have messaged Robertson and warned him the FBI were hiding in the bushes, this probably wouldn't have worked.
But, maybe.
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