Yeah, Green Berets have more training than just combat. Nonetheless, their primary reason for existing is to do combat things. That’s not training you would want to use for nurses, teachers, tennis players, firefighters, or police because it would be inappropriate for the jobs they do. Or are suppose to do.
I’m prepared to believe a lot of training can be applied to different fields. I don’t doubt special forces are exceptional people with training which could be applied to management or a lot of other things. Including some police work, which requires physical and mental acumen. But the people want police to be responsive, lawful, accountable and compassionate. The police do not get enough credit when they are all these things. But all cannot be said to always be all these things.
The police see each other as characters in a story that has been crafted to make them look like well meaning decent people, just like the rest of us. Their story is different though in that it is built on top of the common cultural meme making them better then the rest of us, and under constant unfair scrutiny and criticism. In reality they actually are subjected to constant unfair scrutiny but not in the way manner that they believe. They also view us through lenses highly colored by mythology that reinforces their victimhood and gives them excuses to act above the law, something they acknowledge doing under the rubric of “You can’t understand what it’s like to be a cop” and “Without us you’d all be killed by the criminals”.
From the start of the careers, and for generational LEOS sometimes their whole lives they are taught to be afraid, and then made to feel as if they are cowards if they try to reasonably protect themselves, and all to often find themselves overcome by the fear and create and act out situations leading to death and violence. And again, they are sure if they don’t do that the world will descend into chaos. And again, we all create such fictions about ourselves, it’s just that most of us have the luxury of avoiding the position they find themselves in.
We treat the police like dogs. We fail to secure our society and place the blame for crime on the police. We expect them to sacrifice their well being and their lives for us in exchange for a very middle class compensation at best and then we berate them for acting as any of us probably would in the very same circumstances.