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.
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.)
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.
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.