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Are you speaking from experience in both services or based on media portrayals? I ask because your take does not accord with my (non-experiential) understanding

• rightbyte 3y ago
  I've been a NCO, infantry. Not in the US though, so my claim (i.e. cops are way better at handling civilians than soldiers due to fewer "bad apples") might be inaccurate if there is a big difference. My main point is that people seem to severely underestimate what the police deal with. I would not think that soldiers as a group would cause more problem than say Walmart clerks (lets pretend they would get proper training) if given weapons and power to patrol subways. I've made this argument a lot of times with friends. I hyperbolically claim that the average police is a better person than a Walmart clerk, and I got a lot of shit each time. There is this saying that "power corrupts" but I rather believe that "power gives the ability to show that you are corrupt". Among Walmart clerks there are probably people that really really can't "take shit" that would never pass basic training of soldiers due to anger management issues. So like, the claim could probably be 'cops > soldiers > Walmart clerks' in handling civilians without bad outcomes.
  • kelipso 3y ago
    US cops in particular are trained to violently respond to pretty much anything that moves. They are way way worse at handling civilians than US soldiers.