User blog comment:KennyChief/S.H.I.E.L.D. - America's SS?/@comment-11220539-20160118013117/@comment-6127681-20160118021637

Not so much what they've done, so much as what their legal definition is. Not truly military, not truly part of the police, just kind of a nebulous existence, but armed to the teeth and involved in everything from acting as a Gendarmerie through an intelligence/law enforcement agency to a military branch.