quote:
Originally posted by jmmgj5:
Sassy, actually it is not stated in the headlines that it is for law enforcement. When I clicked on the newspaper web page it said officer receives Purple Heart. My first though was that he was in the national guard or reserves and received it for Iraq. As I know serveral officers I wanted to read the article to see if I knew who it was. That's when I was disappointed to see how it was used. No where in the article did it say it was a law enforcement PH, it did say it was given to a police officer. The only way law enforcement mirrors the military is that they use some of the rank names and then not all of them. Everyone has supervisors so that in it self does not mirror the military. Having served in the military police and having knowledge of the police rank chain, I can say that the rank chain and operates are not the same. The title of the article was very misleading, again not to say officers should not be given awards, but come up with your own award names. In the real world being a police officer is nothing close to being a soldier in combat. The duty and dangers are not even close. I don't think the police would give or copy an award named the Congressal Medal of Honor or Nobel prize as a local award, so why do it with the PH. The PH is second only to the Medal of Honor in respect for the awardee. That respect should be honored by not copying it for local reasons. As the police officers badge is silver in color they could call theirs the silver badge or gold badge of duty or something like that.
I agree that it's not properly identified in the article. That is the responsibility of the reporter and the T/D, not the cop who was awarded it.
Law Enforcement and Military both copy each other. What is originally developed for the military eventually ends up being used by Law Enforcement, and vice versa. This relates to everything from uniforms to less that lethal weapons to medals and awards. Law Enforcement does have Medals of Honor, Medals of Valor, Service Crosses, and various other Medals based on ones originated in the military.
I don't see it changing any time soon. I just make sure I use the proper terminology, and encourage others to do so also. Law Enforcement means no disrespect to the Military by using the name.
As to the duties and dangers of Law Enforcement as compared to the Military, I think the families of several dead cops nationwide would disagree with you currently.