Why Do We Do This?

TW: My gratuitous observation of the day. Why do we need the above? The scene is from this morning at a south suburban home near Chicago where a man is holding his wife hostage. Unfortunate certainly, unique by no means as these situations have been occurring for decades.

My question is why do we fund tactical assault teams with armored vehicles and high powered weapons (generally overweight white males btw) to march around like special forces amidst a "24" episode.

Thirty years ago we had this scene on say Adam-12 twice a season, the situation was addressed without so much drama with a handful of regular police officers and perhaps a street wise hostage negotiator. But now we have the above.