It means that they are in the service industry working for the government.
Of course. My point was that I don’t see them as the brave heroes that the post-9/11 media wants us to think of them as. They’re just hirelings.
Ultimately, they’re paid via tax money taken from the public. Therefore, they’re accountable to the public. The public has every right to film and scrutinize their actions.
If they don’t like it, they can change jobs.[/quote]
Wrong. They are paid by the government agency with whom they are employed. Public citizens are no more their bosses than they are the bosses of employees who work for Microsoft…owning a computer with Microsoft software doesn’t entitle them to any power over Microsoft employees.
Of course, if they deal with a particularly obnoxious employee, they are free to complain to the employer, whether that’s Microsoft, or Qualcomm, or the City of San Diego. But they don’t personally employ or have any control over individual employees, and the individual employees are not personally accountable to any of their employers’ customers.
It would be foolish for employees to cause problems with their employees customers, no matter the type of business they work for, but we have to be clear about the customer-employer-employee relationship.
