Quote:
Originally Posted by barn_elms
All uniformed personnel, whether police or military, who carry weapons will have received training on the use of that weapon, including its killing capability. The military will also have received training in the Geneva Convention, including the treatment of civilians, which the police may well not have. In some way demonising the military as if they are being introduced to threaten the populace rather than to augment a police effort stretched in its attempts to control criminality, is an attitude that is more likely to cause problems. Fortunately, as another contributor has pointed out, it is not widespread.
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It's not clear if you're accusing me of demonising the military. If so, that would be ironic. I don't know how long you were in uniform, but I do know I have about a decade more personal experience of the military than the vast majority of Brits born after 1940.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Italian armed forces receive some sort of training in civil policing duties; I believe that’s the norm in many countries.
Similarly, some members of the British armed forces receive training in fire-fighting and are used to provide emergency cover when there’s a Fire Brigades industrial dispute. I don’t think it’s unfairly critical to say that I’d much prefer to know that professional fire-fighters will come to help my family if there should be a fire in our house or if we’re trapped in a car after and accident. I don’t think that’s unfair criticism of the military, just a reflection of the obvious fact that we all want the people providing emergency services to be well-experienced and trained to the highest possible standards.
I didn’t serve in the Italian armed forces and so I will accept it is possible - as you seem to suggest - that the Italian Army is better trained in civil policing than the many different varieties of Italian police. If you assert it to be so, I'd even accept it's possible the Italian military may have a higher regard for civil rights than the Italian police.
Still, there are a number of very good reasons why most countries make a clear distinction between the military and the police and why - in most places - the armed forces undertake policing duties in their home country only under the gravest of circumstances. If I hadn't already accepted the fact that Italy is a very different sort of place, I would be concerned that the government apparently believes the deployment of the military on the streets is justified due to the current state of public order. As it is, it looks to me like nothing more than political posturing by a newish government which needs to be seen to be doing
something.
But I suspect Marco and others here would rightly suggest that sort of cynical indifference is precisely the sort of attitude which allows tyranny to creep in.
Al