One of Italy's many competing police forces, descended from the former guardia regia of the monarchist era. The carabinieri are formally part of the army, but operate as an all-purpose national police force, doing anything from bodyguard duties and complex criminal investigations to directing traffic and generally doing anything that allows you to wear cool sunglasses. Since the Italians - more concerned with local factionalism and internal rivalries - do not care anough about any other country or race enough to make condescending and abusive jokes about their stupidity, the carabinieri have been adopted for this role; carabinieri jokes are the local equivalent of Irish/Polack/p'tit belge/Frieslander jokes elsewhere.