On many of them, the tip off is that the cops will stack a much larger force at an entry way, or otherwise clump together on the streets. The military were usually much more spread out and will have 2-3 in a picture when on the street.
Nope. That too, but the real tip-off is in the obvious bias of the person who created the quiz. No one would create such a quiz unless he was trying to make a point about the militarization of the police--damn good point, but it shows.
I don't know if cops, when they're all militaried up actually tend to add gratuitous amounts of black, but the first slide was the tip-off that that would be a theme, and it carried over pretty well. All the really flattering shots but one were soldiers. All the really goofy, stupid looking ones were cops. The in-between ones? Well, the dude with the black something-or-other and that three-point sling I wasn't sure on, because the black jumped out, but I went with the sling as being military. Maybe cops use military-style slings too, but in a pic set like this, a cop is much more likely to be, in the immortal words of the Dude, waving the *expletive deleted*ing gun around. More importantly though, he has his hand open and facing out in a universally understood non-hostile manner. And he's got the kind of focused, intense, serene look that makes him look all kinds of...um, I'll be in my bunk.... Yeah, that dude's a soldier, because no cop is gonna look that awesome in this set of pics.
The exercise with the people in the background hanging out? Not cops. Makes the exercise look all friendly-like.
All the jokes about black helicopter green made the helos easy, even though they're the reverse of the general rule. Difference? Cops don't use helicopters to look menacing. They do use various armored vehicles to spend way too much taxpayer money in order to look scary. Helicopters are for, and I could be wrong here, but I'm guessing, catching speeders on the freeway, monitoring evacuations or riots, etc. They're out of sight of the unruly public, so plain ol' shiny green is fine. Soldiers have the slight "they shoot back" issue going on and need flat paint.
Hey, Watson, it's elementary, and you don't even need to know the gear, just the bias.
19/21. The guy standing in a wood looking vaguely contemplative is definitely out of place with the cops. And the one with the guys desert fatigues, a row of 'em shot from a funny angle? One of 'em a kind of a dopey expression on his face, that combined with the black sunglasses on the guy behind him got me guessing the wrong way.
