I guess the difference between a civilian and being on the muscle end of the family depends on what your definition of is is .

Actually a civilian would be someone who did not participate at all in the business, and someone on the muscle end would be someone who did not participate on hits...i.e. someone universally recognized as "not a wartime consigliere." This would mean that Connie lost her civilian status when she began lobbying for Vincent and and her "not one the muscle end" status when she gave the order to hit Zasa.