[TankerKC]

When did the cops start considering themselves an army?

The only similarity is that they wear uniforms.

But so do letter carriers.

[familyop]

"The only similarity is that they wear uniforms."

Today, I saw a news photo of a sheriff with the U.S. Army rank of general on his collar. During the '90s, while patrolling for a few months for a PD that turned out to be corrupt, I saw a chief wearing the U.S. Army rank of colonel.

With the state patrol paradigm of the '60s or before, I could understand the use of such rank for state patrol offices. State patrolmen were respectable and fit for the most part with fair initial training, and many of them had prior combat specialty military service. The old, real morality was important as the guiding influence behind laws. But that's about it. People were generally very different then from what we see now.

Television has been one of the main propaganda culprits, pushing incrementally for a few particular constituencies.