From: Damien Sullivan (phoenix@ugcs.caltech.edu)
Date: Fri Apr 11 2003 - 13:28:26 MDT
On Fri, Apr 11, 2003 at 11:07:51AM -0400, Keith Elis wrote:
> What special skills do police have that military troops do not? Normal
> civilian police have some rudimentary knowledge of the law codified into
> police procedure, but this can easily become military procedure in
Training and habits. This is why people don't want the military used for
intra-US law enforcement. The military is trained to kill enemies. That's
their job. The police are (hopefully) trained in apprehension with an eye to
civil liberties and due process. Asking soldiers to behave with the
(hoped for) sensitivity of police is mixing domains and risking the wrong
reflexes.
Now, this whole war has had an aspect of police action to it, in trying not to
kill civilians, and possibly idealistic soldiers with reporters swarming
around would do as well as corrupt local police forces. But the concern is
there.
-xx- Damien X-)
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