Remember, they programmed Spartan to sew. He knit the sweater and mentioned the urge to knit.

Probably
First Blood
reference. He was taunted as "soldier boy" as well in FB and in this Snipes called "Rambo."
What do you say, you dumb bitch?

I didn't think of it that way. It would be cool if the movie had back story books or comics. Maybe John Spartan went from US army to LA PD. The other cops weren't wearing military berets.

Martial law was in place and Spartan was a part of some kind of militarized police force.
Its called predictive programming. Watch the show of force at the fort Lauderdale airport shooting. Militarized police everywhere with armored tank like vehicles.
Like most mass media they condition our minds to accept new realities.
And I wish they still made action movies like this.

Yep. In "Brave New World"(which this movie is somewhat inspired by), it was referred to as 'hypnopaedia'.
A nozh scrap any time you say.

when they are frozen they have audio pumped into their head, maybe to teach them to be good people + learn skills.

Maybe John Spartan was like in the army before being frozen. Simon Phoenix a couple of times referred to him as soldier boy.