26 Sep 16 08:57, you wrote to Joe Delahaye:   
      
    HG>> So the gendarmes are probably military polices, or just soldiers.   
      
    JD>> Or perhaps the State Police.  I believe there is a Gendarmerie (sp)   
    JD>> in France. Perhaps it is something like the British Bobby?   
      
    HG> I have always thought that an english Bobby is a patrolling police,   
    HG> creating a sense of safety in a neighbourhood, and helping citizens   
    HG> and tourists.   
      
    HG> Since nobody frenchspeaking person appears here, I think we will have   
    HG> to leave the question of what a french gendarm is or does, open.   
      
   since i'm the one that tossed the term out there, please allow me to post some   
   clarification of the term...   
      
      
   genúdarme   
   'ZH„nd„rm/   
   noun   
   noun: gendarme; plural noun: gendarmes   
      
       1. an armed police officer in France and other French-speaking countries.   
       2. a member of a body of soldiers especially in France serving as an armed   
   police force for the maintenance of public order   
       3. police officer   
       4. a rock pinnacle on a mountain, occupying and blocking an arˆte.   
      
   Origin   
   mid 16th century (originally denoting a mounted officer in the French army):   
   French, from gens d'armes 'men of arms.' Sense 1 dates from the late 18th   
   century. back-formation from gensdarmes, plural of gent d'armes, literally,   
   armed people.   
      
   Synonyms   
   bobby [British], bull [slang], constable   
      
      
   =====   
      
      
   A gendarmerie or gendarmery is a military component with jurisdiction in civil   
   law enforcement. The term "gendarmerie" is derived from the medieval French   
   expression gens d'armees, which translates to "armed men".[1] In France and   
   most Francophone nations, the gendarmerie is the branch of the armed forces   
   responsible for internal security during wartime.[1] This concept was   
   introduced to several other Western European countries during the Napoleonic   
   conquests.[2] In the mid twentieth century, a number of former French mandates   
   or colonial possessions such as Syria and the Republic of the Congo adopted a   
   gendarmerie after independence.[3][4]   
      
   The growth and expansion of gendarmerie units worldwide has been linked to an   
   increasing reluctance by some governments to use military units typically   
   entrusted with external defense for combating internal threats.[1] A somewhat   
   related phenomenon has been the formation of paramilitary units which fall   
   under the authority of civilian police agencies. Since these are not strictly   
   military forces, however, they are not considered gendarmerie.[5]   
      
   Some of the more prominent modern gendarmerie organizations include the French   
   National Gendarmerie, Italian Carabinieri, and Spanish Civil Guard.[5]   
      
      
   [1] Lioe, Kim Eduard. Armed Forces in Law Enforcement Operations? - The German   
   and European Perspective (1989 ed.). Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. pp.   
   52-57. ISBN 978-3-642-15433-1.   
   [2] Emsley, Clive. Gendarmes and the State in Nineteenth-Century Europe (1999   
   ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 52-57. ISBN 978-0198207986.   
   [3] Deep, Daniel (2012). Occupying Syria Under the French Mandate: Insurgency,   
   Space and State Formation. Cambridge University Press. p. 204. ISBN   
   978-1-107-00006-3.   
   [4] Clark, John; Decalo, Samuel (2012). Historical Dictionary of Republic of   
   the Congo. Lanham: Scarecrow Press. pp. 44-49. ISBN 978-0-8108-7989-8.   
   [5] Kumar, Kuldeep. Police and Counterinsurgency: The Untold Story of   
   Tripura's COIN Campaign (2016 ed.). SAGE Publications India. pp. 90-94. ISBN   
   978-9351507475.   
      
      
   )\/(ark   
      
   Always Mount a Scratch Monkey   
   Do you manage your own servers? If you are not running an IDP/IPS yer doin' it   
   wrong...   
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    * Origin:  (1:3634/12.73)