Police reject candidate for being 'too intelligent'

reply to post by rcwj75

---

You may be a good LEO. Who knows. I don't think all cops are killers with badges, or adolescent authoritarians. However there seems to be two camps on ATS. 1. the hate cops mentality, and 2. the support everything police do mentality. Both are wrong, wrong, wrong.

My problem with police is that they protect fellow police who are guilty of crimes. My problem with people who question police is that often they do not understand the reality of being a police officer in America. Both require remedy. Cops need to know the laws they're enforcing and the Constitution they swear to. People need to understand that criminals are getting more and more dangerous these days and sometimes the tactics police use are going to appear more forceful than one's sensibilities are willing to accept.

None the less, without cops we will have no way of capturing and holding criminals in a civilized way. Without police accountability we get the same result. There is a middle ground. There is no reason we should be perpetually on either side of the fence.

I am going to chime in with my first hand experience of police and the display of intellect, or lack thereof, which was shocking to me at the time.

There were a spate of home burglaries in my neighboorhood years back, nine houses on my street alone during a six week period -- all coninciding with construction going on on my block (I think a const. worker was calling someone when they saw we left the house, it was the middle of the day and I was out for an hour).

Anyway, I came home realized I had been robbed and called the cops. They responded with helicopter and three squad cars within minutes, this was due in part to the fact that a cop had almost apprehended a robber the day before down the street. That officer was one of the 6 that showed up guns drawn.

They all hung out and waited for a detective to show-up, which he did in short order. The Det. questioned the cop about the suspect he had encountered the day before as if he was talking to a four-year old. The Det.'s demeanor and behaviour was such that this was just par for the course.

He asked the officer to describe the suspect. The cop kept saying the guy had mousey hair.

The Det. kept asking him what did he mean by that -- I thought it was clear the cop was saying the suspect had mousey brown hair, but no it was because and I quote: "His hair was short, you know like a mouse"

The Det. emmitted the soul weariest sigh I have ever heard.

I respect, and am grateful, for the work of the police force, but after that experience I have no trouble believeing that certain places may prefer to hire those that are of lower IQ's to man the squad cars.

Maybe there's 3rd and 4th camps too? I have had personal experience with one world class idiot cop who ended up stirring up a doodoo storm and in the end other cops I think felt a bit of compassion for me. I've also worked with world class human being NPS cops and have nothing but thanks for them for the protection and service they provide. The IQ test story is shocking, even if it is 12 years old or whatever. I hope that has changed as I also know that some people with high IQs prefer a routine with the occasional adrenaline rush.
Does anyone remember the Department of Education and how we got rid of that? Big gov't is bad so axe that. Meanwhile the Dept of Commerce has done a fantastic job. That's govt that works! What depression??

People with high IQ's who go into police work also tend to be more ambitious, and have the smarts to back up that ambition. Thus, many are seen as a threat by their superiors, who want to hang on to the privileges that come with rank.

There's also the sad fact that many police forces nationwide spend far less time on real police work and more time raising revenue for their districts by busting people for piddly things that can rack up fines quickly; the less-intelligent are considered to be better suited to such "work" because the smart guys are, by and large, more interested in actually solving crimes than writing jaywalking and traffic tickets.

Let's face it--anybody who's lived in any city for more than a week knows where the "bad" parts of town are and the crime that goes on there. Cops everywhere know exactly where the local heavily-armed drug gangs hang out. So why don't they do their jobs and bust them? Where's the SWAT teams storming old warehouses and housing projects so they can put dangerous thugs in jail, and the detectives cataloging the evidence to keep them there? When I started training to be a LEO that's what I wanted to do. Then I found out that's just not what cops do anymore, if they ever really did in the first place. When I found out the job consists more of intimidating innocent citizens, venting frustrations by beating the tar out of people who don't deserve it and lying your butt off to protect your "brother" officers from the rightful consequences of their actions, my desire to join the force waned quickly.

Frankly this guy should count his blessings. Even if he'd made it to the force most of his "brother" officers probably would never have accepted him as one of their own anyway.

That IS what we do, but don't forget...even the worst of the worst have rights. I would be more then happy to go and kick in the doors of KNOWN drug dealers, gang bangers, etc...BUT...the minute it goes to court and we did even the SLIGHTEST thing wrong you same people are defending the scumbags who are the worst. People always tell me, go find "real" criminals to arrest...and when I do, then those same people sit back and wanna judge how I got the job done to put away a drug dealer, gang banger, rapist, etc....and start feeling more sorry for them then their victims.....its a catch 22... sad but true

reply to post by rcwj75

---

That's what Due Process is. And though I realize that drug dealers are essentially as known to me as they are to you without due process, an innocent man can go to jail. And there is much documented evidence of such things happening. Some times it's the cops that are involved, some times it's the judge like those two judges that puts kids away for money paid by private corrections facilities. Some times it's the prosecutors who screw it up. But due process is there for a reason. And that reason is that cops are humans too. You're people not perfect.

Although I've only seen one policeperson on this thread, it does seem like it's a room full of judges.

This is just another form of discrimination. As one who had been considered 'overqualified' (being declined a job because my resume' was 'too heavy') in the past really sucks when my family is running out of money fast. The only justifiable legal discrimination I know of is where a person is physically or mentally unable to perform the job requirements necessary for the job. Beyond that, the employer is prying way too much into a person's personal life and preferences.

The police department could have a policy that says they will not hire people with a French accent and still be 'judicially upheld' by:



"Sorry Mr. Jordan, we're not discriminating against you because of YOUR French accent, but because of ALL french accents." Nice.

[edit on 26-2-2009 by saint4God]

Really? "Real" criminals like mouthy college students who get tortured with Tazers because they speak their minds or forgot their school ID for access to the computer lab? "Real" criminals like the guy shot in the back by a BART cop while he was face-down on the floor in cuffs? "Real" criminals who videotape police activity to ensure someone, somewhere, is keeping an independent eye on them, since their superiors don't give a damn what they do and can't be trusted to enforce procedural law? "Real" criminals like the media representatives who were summarily rounded up during the two major political conventions this past year (more so from the Republican convention, but still, a chilling effect on freedom of the Press)?

Yeah, all these folks are "real scumbags".

Let me ask you this:

At what point does the average cop decide that everyone who isn't a cop is just "little people?"

In ways i like the low IQ cops.

In my younger day i smoked a little grass and for many years i carried a handgun in my car or truck.

In the last 45 years the cops have searched my vehicles about 20 times.
about 12 of those times i had a handgun hidden in the Vehicle.
The the local city cops or sheriffs never found it.
One time a off-duty cop saw me shooting at the local shooting area in the hills outside of town and they were waiting on the road when i drove back to town and still could not find the gun. (I saw the cop and hid the gun in the air cleaner of my truck.)
One other time they pulled me over after i was working as a federal security officer on the local navy base and still could not find my handgun.(my boss had a talk with them about searching my truck. and they stopped while i worked for the navy)

About 5 times when i was young they missed the grass i had because i never carried it in my vehicle, I always carried it on the outside of the vehicle where i could claim it was planted, Now i have a medical marijuana scrip. But i still hide the marijuana just to bug the cops if they ever search.

Most of these searches i link to the local cops using confidential informants.
i always told criminal types that i carried a gun.
and i believe many of them told the local cops.


So having low IQ cops can be a blessing.



[edit on 1-3-2009 by ANNED]