I think that the military - law enforcement division here is from both sides reading a little into statements that may very well not have been there to begin with and escalating from there. If you personally served your full enlistment in the military with tours overseas you are qualified to speak about the military. If you personally served or are serving as a law enforcement officer, you are qualified to speak about the law enforcement side. Unless you have served with both, you are not qualified to compare and contrast. I have served my tours overseas and my units never had the mission of capturing enemy combatants. Our mission was to assist the enemy in their vow to fight to the death. So the only grenades we had were of the fragmentary class. There were units who did have the mission to capture key targets or other enemy combatants for intelligence information who might have a need for flash bangs, but since I did not serve in one, I do not know. I know there are times where the enemy does not fight by our rules and that makes the task more risky. I also spent a few years working narco-terrorism in the military alongside federal, state, and local officers with the mission of interrupting the flow of drugs into America and the flow of US currency used to fund terrorists. I wasn't a police officer, but I saw on a daily basis their interactions with drug dealers/traffickers/cartels. Their mission was to always if possible to take the suspect into custody for prosecution. These people are going out daily many times against criminals who have more powerful weapons than the LEO's. The LEO's cannot call in for an air strike or arty support though. Both have basic training to perform the job, but the military is usually afforded additional unit training time before being shipped anywhere, whereas the LEO's are on the street performing their jobs within days of graduating from the academy. Both sides have people I would trust my life with and they both have people enrolled in either the RAW or ROAD programs (Retired At Work or Retired On Active Duty). Both have annual qualification requirements. I have friends who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in the military and I have friends who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the police. The only difference worth mentioning is the military protects us overseas and LEO's protect us at home. So instead of sniping at each other, you should have each other's sixes.
