Civilian “Generals”, by Eric Peters

Police like to pretend they’re military, but now the pretend is getting closer and closer to reality. And who is this military meant to fight? American citizens. From Eric Peters at ericpetersautos.com:

You may have seen the picture of the Texas sheriff who denounced Hombre Naranja’s efforts to get control of the border. But did you see the general’s stars on the collar of this civilian cop?

One sees this a lot.

There are “sergeants” and “lieutenants” and “majors” and “colonels” with eagles on their collars. There are even four and five-star “generals” – equivalent in rank to MacArthur and Eisenhower and Patton running small-town sheriff’s offices.

It’s what you might call stolen valor – a term of  opprobrium applied to people who parade around in military uniforms (and wearing military insignia) they’re not entitled to wear – either because they’re not in the military or because they didn’t earn the military insignia.

Like the four-star “general” of Bexar County, Texas.

He is not in the military and he most definitely did not receive his four stars from the military.

As an Elvis impersonator used to ask: Who do you think I think I am?

An interesting thing about this is that there’s a historical precedent for it. One with unpleasant implications.

In National Socialist Germany – it is always important to spell it out rather than use the acronym that the National Socialists themselves never used – there were paramilitary bodies that awarded themselves military ranks – such as SA Haupsturmfuhrer, a kind of “captain” who wasn’t commissioned by the German army.