4 ms·

Ahem... "police work is much less dangerous than many other civilian jobs".

• gaius 10y ago
  The police ARE civilians. That they imagine themselves to be a branch of the military is the very problem!
  • mc32 10y ago
    They are civilians... however, colloquially "civilian" can refer to a non-insider, someone outside the profession. A group of boxers might say "yeah, civilians wouldn't understand why we love the sport". In other words, it's not always used in the strict sense of military vs non-military.
    • gaius 10y ago
      it's not always used in the strict sense of military vs non-military When people with machine guns and armoured vehicles, etc refer to others as "civilians", I think it's clear what sense it is used in.
  • grkvlt 10y ago
    Well, is some countries (France, Spain, Italy) they have the concept of a Gendarmerie [1] which is a para-military police force. This is in contrast to, for example, the UK Constabulary, say, which is simply a policing organisation. A Gendarmerie is more disciplined, with a stricter enforcement of hierarchy and chain-of-comment. Related to this, I notice that some police forces in the US (all?) have military style titles - Lieutenant, Captain, etc. - rather than Officer or Constable. Is there a reason for this? Maybe the military-style ranks reinforce the idea in individuals that they serve a military-style role? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gendarmerie#Role_and_services https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gendarmerie#Role_and_services