A Reminder: Policing Is A Civilian Job

*“What was a policeman, if not a civilian with a uniform and a badge?” – Terry Pratchett*

Apparently, a large portion of the United States thinks that it’s OK for police to be military these days. And, as of this weekend, that it’s OK for military to be police.

They’re wrong.

It’s important to maintain this distinction, because the military is only deployed against enemies. It’s what they’re for.

Since the military expect to only be deployed in hostile situations, they are also generally expected to simply obey and trust that the author of their rules of engagement for a deployment has considered the situation and made appropriate choices. This emphasis on obedience is a problem for the military in a democracy, of course, but is even worse in the situations police deal with.

The police do not exist in an environment where the typical other person is even a combatant, much less an enemy; in a police deployment, the vast majority of the environment and population must be presumed to be friendly at best and neutral at worst. And police must trust their own judgement.

A soldier who goes into the field expecting to fight is just doing their job; a police officer who goes out each morning expecting to fight is a failure, and is going to cause way more problems than they solve.

Policing is a civilian task.

If your police feel that they need to dress and act as soldiers to do their job, or your politicians feel that they need to assign actual soldiers to do that job, then your police and politicians are poorly suited to that work and should not be in those jobs in the first place.

If your police genuinely do need to dress and act as soldiers to do their job, or your politicians genuinely do need to assign actual soldiers to do that job, then your State has already failed and you should be looking at organizing a new one (or several).