Clan Paramilitary Police

The Clan Paramilitary Police are an often overlooked force that is organized to maintain law and order within Clan society.

History[edit]

Clan paramilitary police are a branch of the Warrior Caste found in every Clan.[1] The ranks of the paramilitary police are filled with solahma, freeborn warriors, and trueborn warriors who tested down.[2][3][4][5] Clan police personnel were not deployed in combat until the Second Star League attacked Huntress.[3][4] Another notable combat deployment of Clan paramilitary police were the Clan Goliath Scorpion policemen fought in the defense of Scorpions' capital city on Roche following the Abjuration of the Scorpions.[6]

By 3080, paramilitary policemen formed a third of all Clan Jade Falcon planetary militia forces in their Inner Sphere occupation zone, with the remainder of the militia forces being composed of solahma troops.[7] Said paramilitary police were also used as the enforcement arm of the Clan Jade Falcon Watch to keep their civilian castes pacified.

As of 3094, Clan Hell's Horses did not have any forces garrisoning Von Strang's World, The Rock, and Manaringaine except for paramilitary police.[8]

Hell’s Horses Star Colonel David Fletcher of the Third Horde Cluster defeated a Jade Falcon paramilitary police Star Commander in a Trial of Possession for Rastaban on 19 March 3151 after the majority of the Jade Falcons' forces departed for Terra. [9]

Following their conquest of Nueva Castile, the Scorpions created a new military caste known as the "garrison caste", nicknamed the "grunt" caste. This new social stratum was created for the majority of Castilian and Umayyad soldiers, who were considered unworthy of joining the warrior caste. Consisting primarily of conventional armor and infantry, the garrison caste performs security and police duties as well as assisting with planetary defense.[10] Besides solahma, the grunt caste (now composed of Warrior candidate test-downs) appears to have replaced the paramilitary police as the primary source of manpower for the Escorpión Imperio's Provisional Garrison Clusters.

Function[edit]

The paramilitary police enforce order among the civilian castes by patrolling cities and guarding Clan compounds.[2][3][4] Enforcers from the civilian castes assist the paramilitary police in this role.[11] Additionally, the paramilitary police serve as a planetary militia for the Clans.[3][4] For example, police infantry Trinaries were part of the Clusters of conventional vehicles and infantry attached to Clan Star Adder's Provisional Galaxies.[12] A Clan's Loremaster also holds the office of Provost Marshall, the commander of his or her Clan's paramilitary police.[13]

Traditionally, both trueborn and freeborn Clan warriors look down on paramilitary policemen.[2] The strength and deployments Clan paramilitary police forces have been omitted from official documents describing Clan military units.[3][4] Most Clan paramilitary policemen are unhappy with their position, and consider themselves to be halfway between warriors and civilians.[11] As a result, the Clan paramilitary often vent their anger and frustration by inflicting brutal punishments on criminals they catch and convict, ostensibly as a deterrent against future crimes.[2][11] Prior to the Clan Invasion, a small number of Clan paramilitary policemen were trained as detectives, performing investigative functions, but they were not as skilled as those found in Inner Sphere law enforcement agencies.[2]

Contact with Inner Sphere law enforcement professionals breathed new life into the paramilitary police forces of several of the Invading Clans (with the notable exception of the Smoke Jaguars).[11] For the first time, Clan paramilitary police were exposed to more sophisticated investigative methods and police officers who actually took pride in their profession.[11] Meanwhile, in the Escorpion Imperio, innovative approaches to policing eventually became the norm across all planets of the Imperio after being pioneered by a pair of prodigious brothers in the garisson caste.[14]

In terms of investigative work, the upper hierarchy of Clan leadership can interfere with paramilitary police investigations if it implicates important figures of interest such as when Clan Wolf abruptly halted the investigation into the murder of Star Captain Martin "Dingo" Kerensky on Tamar in 3115 where there was evidence linking his death to Katherine Steiner-Davion.[15]

Equipment[edit]

Around the time of the Clan Invasion, paramilitary police units were equipped with conventional vehicles and conventional infantry equipment.[3][4] Even in the 32nd Century, paramilitary police officers were sometimes equipped with only a sidearm during patrols.[5]

In 3092,[16] the Ghost Bear Dominion introduced the Constable Pacification Suit to help maintain order among its Inner Sphere-born citizenry. The Ghost Bear Watch originally developed the Constable to help them and the Polis against a Rasalhagian terrorist group known as Motstånd. The Constable suit's array of weapons and equipment options allowed the Watch to handle the terrorists while not exposing their civilian population to harm with a fully militarized police force. The Constable design then spread to police forces in other Clans' occupation zones.[17][18]

See Also[edit]

Trivia[edit]

Although described as a "militia" in several sources,[2][3][4] a more appropriate term to describe the Clan paramilitary police would be "gendarmerie".

References[edit]

  1. ↑ The Clans: Warriors of Kerensky, p. 34: "The Caste System"
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 The Clans: Warriors of Kerensky, pp. 62–63: "Law and Order"
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Field Manual: Crusader Clans, p. 10: "Raw Strength"
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Field Manual: Warden Clans, p. 12: "Contests of Strengths"
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Technical Readout: 3145, p. 4 "Constable Pacification Suit: Point Commander Ferdinand, Chief Inspector"
  6. ↑ The Wars of Reaving, p. 158: "Escorpión Imperio (Periphery Nation)"
  7. ↑ Objectives: Clans, p. 44: "Regional And Local Militia"
  8. ↑ Interstellar Expeditions: Interstellar Players 3, p. 97: "Report #817H: Clan Hell’s Horses"
  9. ↑ ilClan, pp. 114–115
  10. ↑ Interstellar Expeditions: Interstellar Players 3, p. 47: "Grunt Caste"
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 A Time of War, p. 363: "Police Forces"
  12. ↑ Field Manual: Crusader Clans, p. 119: "Second-Line and Solahma Assets"
  13. ↑ The Clans: Warriors of Kerensky, p. 57: "Loremaster"
  14. ↑ Technical Readout: Dark Age, p. 48: ARA-S-1 Araña MilitiaMech
  15. ↑ Shrapnel Issue #3, "Assassination Protocol: Katherine Steiner-Davion"
  16. ↑ MUL online date for the Constable
  17. ↑ Technical Readout: 3145, p. 4 "Constable Pacification Suit"
  18. ↑ Technical Readout: 3150, p. 6 "Constable Pacification Suit"

Bibliography[edit]

Retrieved from "https://www.sarna.net/wiki/index.php?title=Clan_Paramilitary_Police&oldid=1022519"