Complete ignorance of who military members are, how they are screened and recruited, and how they think is sadly the rule in the civilian world, not the exception.
In addition to having to pass a medical records screen, most US servicemembers come from the middle three socioeconomic quintiles of the population. It is literally a middle-class institution. Yet the trope lives on of the supposedly stupid military member who only joined because they had no options.
I am serious. Ye, well, I'd argue the type of person that really can't "take shit" wont survive very long as a cop. Either litteraly or by being fired.
Among soldiers that type is way more common as they are not being filtered out since they are not exposed to it. (The NCO:s being mean in boot camp is not the same thing since the soldier is a subordinate.)
I would estimate that U.S. soldiers, are enormously more disciplined on average than U.S. police. More training, stricter rules of engagement, more significant and immediate consequences for violating those rules, better discipline, tighter command structure. There's no comparison whatsoever.
Are you speaking from experience in both services or based on media portrayals? I ask because your take does not accord with my (non-experiential) understanding.
I've been a NCO, infantry. Not in the US though, so my claim (i.e. cops are way better at handling civilians than soldiers due to fewer "bad apples") might be inaccurate if there is a big difference.
My main point is that people seem to severely underestimate what the police deal with. I would not think that soldiers as a group would cause more problem than say Walmart clerks (lets pretend they would get proper training) if given weapons and power to patrol subways.
I've made this argument a lot of times with friends. I hyperbolically claim that the average police is a better person than a Walmart clerk, and I got a lot of shit each time. There is this saying that "power corrupts" but I rather believe that "power gives the ability to show that you are corrupt".
Among Walmart clerks there are probably people that really really can't "take shit" that would never pass basic training of soldiers due to anger management issues. So like, the claim could probably be 'cops > soldiers > Walmart clerks' in handling civilians without bad outcomes.
US cops in particular are trained to violently respond to pretty much anything that moves. They are way way worse at handling civilians than US soldiers.
I honestly can't tell if this is meant to be serious or in jest.
I agree with the sentiment, but the reality is neither are cops.