Know the difference between Law Enforcement and the Military

If you were born after 1991, then you have never known a world without war. It probably does seem weird to you that everyone keeps talking about peace and civil rights, while law enforcement constantly gets harassed for doing the most dangerous job in the world.

However, today we are embarked in the longest war in American history, quickly approaching the 20 year mark. That’s twice as long as Vietnam. We do not know the implications an ongoing war will have on our society; only history books will tell. But we do know that our society is more depressed than ever, less sexualized and generally unhappy.

So if you are under 30 years old, then there is a very good chance that you don’t know the difference between the law enforcement and the military. It’s not your fault. It is because when we are at war, the government is allowed to make certain provisions that overstep traditional policing for the sake national security.

Back to the differences between law enforcement and the military. First, here are the similarities. Both law enforcement and the military are legal “bearers of arms”. That means that they have the right and even the obligation to use deadly force; they have a license to kill.

However, where law enforcement and the military differ is their directive. The object of law enforcement is to capture their subject while the objective of the military is to kill their opponent. When the military is used as an occupation force, the soldiers serve as the police. Then the soldier will switch their directive to containment and they will capture unruly citizens rather than just shoot to kill them, as they normally would in traditional combat.

Because their objectives are different, the training of law enforcement and military personnel must also be quite different.

Law enforcement officers are trained:

• 1st peace keeping
• 2nd apprehension and
• 3rd combat.

Soldiers are trained:

• 1st combat
• 2nd apprehension and
• 3rd peace keeping.

Police officers are trained to be less aggressive than soldiers and they are trained not to shoot or even threaten to shoot. Instead, police officers are trained to gain their subject’s cooperation.

Another difference between a police officer and a solider are their opponents. Police officers deal with the civilian and domestic population so they are trained as such. Military soldiers deal with combatants and foreign populations and are also trained accordingly.

Security guards in Vegas are the worst of both worlds. Often, soldier return from war but their aggressive behavior invalidate then for civil law enforcement. So they end up getting hired by a private security company like Securitas or Blackstone. These companies believe their guards are a substitute for law enforcement when they are the actually opposite; they often escalate a situation rather than de-escalate because they are not trained at the level of a police officer.

Because we have been at war for nearly 30 years, many of the cadets applying for jobs were trained in the military. As police departments look to hire these soldiers, understand that their fundamental training is firmly grounded in the military. Therefore, in a panic situation, they will follow their first, primary objective; combat, unless they have “unlearned” their previous military training.

And unlearning is a skill mastered by the Jedi.