[driftdiver]

“Which raises a question. Why are cops militarized? Why do they refer to their fellow citizens as ‘civilians’? Why do they have military rank?”

All good questions. Do you want civilian law enforcement to be the military?

“Why did we have a Sheriff system and why did we create at the end of the 1800’s a Police system?”

We still have a Sheriffs system.

“If not military, who are the militarized cops military to?”

huh

[Leisler]

We once had a system of few laws and much liberty. Basically you were responsible for your property and life.
If you had a problem with a person, you went to a judge, or got the Shire Reaver ( County Robber ), now know as Sheriff, who would drag the other party before a judge.

So there was no need of police.

Police are an invention of large government types, and are not for citizen to citizen dispute, but for government over citizens.

They are the army of the government, over the citizens.
Their very existence is a presumption of the state over the individual. They are the armed force. They enforce political actions that might well otherwise not be freely obeyed by the citizens.

And that is the country and the dominate political thinking we live in now. Whether it is police, or the Federal Reserve or any of a thousand institutions they are to be obeyed. They are supposed to be so apparently good that they need civilian military force, to be forced upon people.