In case you didn’t know it, Maine is the birthplace of Officer Friendly. The friendly bicycle policeman that visited schools and preschools throughout the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s had his origins on the Maine coast.

We want Officer Friendly. The police are supposed to be our friends. We tell our children to look for an officer if they need help. Their role is to help people. That’s what we were taught, and that’s what we all want, and even though a most recent YouGov poll suggests that a large minority of Americans have lost trust in the police amid recent police shootings, in Maine, we still seem to have faith in our police forces … for the most part.

We are wary about some things, however. Nearly half the people shot and killed by police in Maine since 2000 have been mentally ill or impaired. “I wouldn’t hesitate to call the police if someone broke into my home or car,” Bath resident Tony Albert remarked Sunday. “ I wouldn’t dare call if my autistic brother was on a tear, though. I’m afraid he’d be shot.”

We shouldn’t be afraid that our autistic siblings might be shot. Or our mentally ill spoues. Or our suicidal children.

That some of us are afraid of such a thing is something our police forces have to work on to regain our trust. But generally, our relationship with our police is good, and non-confrontational.

We hope it stays that way. In other parts of the country, it’s not that way. At all.

The situation in Ferguson, Missouri, is a case in point of a much deeper problem, a problem that informs how the police in some places look at themselves, and how they see the rest of the town they purportedly serve and protect.

A chaotic week of unrest followed the police shooting of 18- year-old Michael Brown, who was unarmed. He was killed walking down the street after an encounter with a Ferguson police officer. The officer who shot him says the incident occurred because Brown was walking down the middle of the street and would not adhere to his commands. He was shot six times. The officer says that there was a confrontation. A witness says Brown was not confrontational, and was shot with his hands up. The autopsy seems to suggest that to be the case.

Protests led to riots. Several people were shot, reporters were arrested, and militarized police vehicles, military surplus, show up. The presence of tanks and attack helicopters adds fuel to the fire. Governor Nixon said that it’s hard to have a dialogue with people when you roll up in a tank and point automatic weapons at them. The crowd was teargassed.

The governor put the state police in charge; the federal government began to conduct its own parallel inquiry. The Ferguson police chief identified the officer who shot Brown as Darren Wilson and says that someone matching Brown’s description may have stolen a box of cigars, although the officer who shot the unarmed teen didn’t know that. Nixon called in the National Guard and imposed a curfew.

This is a far cry from Officer Friendly on his bicycle. Not a parent in Ferguson is urging his or her children to seek assistance from the cop on the beat.

What is happening in Ferguson, and in dozens of other towns across the country, is war. And in war, there are soldiers on both sides. The militarization of our police forces sets up an occupation like mentality in a population that has already felt oppressed. We must demilitarize our police and make them members of our societies again, not super-powerful, vicious, occupying forces who don’t have to answer for their actions.

First, get rid of the tanks.