Bloomberg wrong about NYPD being "7th largest army in the world" - try 96th

Earlier today, Gaius wrote about how NYC's Mayor Bloomberg recently bragged that the NYPD was the "7th largest army in the world." (Bloomberg also said "I have my own army," referring to the NYPD.) So I did some research. From what I can find, the NYPD is nowhere close to the 7th largest army in the world. Try 96th.

Ironically, 7th on the list is a little place we like to call the United States of America.  (If you only count active duty troops, the US is second, right behind China, and Turkey is 7th with 620,000 active duty troops.)

New York City has 44,650 police officers, auxilliary police officers, and "school safety agents."

Now look at a list of world's military:

NYC would be 96th on the list, right after Kuwait and right before Croatia, if you count active duty, reserve duty, and paramilitia.

NYC would be 72rd on the list, right after Uganda and right before Portugal, if you only count active duty military members.

Nowhere near 7th.

And the way the NYPD has been behaving against Occupy Wall Street protesters - the way far too many of our nation's police forces (and Montreal) have been behaving - Kuwait and Croatia, sadly, sound about right.