4 ms·

They put our prime minister in jail once and got the last one to prosecution so yes. I think the USA has a problem with the way police and guns are viewed. The

They put our prime minister in jail once and got the last one to prosecution so yes. I think the USA has a problem with the way police and guns are viewed. There's a sense of distrust in authority which is sometimes justified. But also breeds overly defensive and pretty bad officers. The standards are low. The pay is low and everybody hates them. Who would want to be a police officer? So the problem feeds itself, bad people become police officers. Good people look around and quit.

gretch 5y ago
There's a documented court case where a person was disallowed to be a police officer after scoring too HIGH on an intelligence/aptitude test: https://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/story?id=95836 https://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/st... So even if "good" smart people with fair judgement go, they are turned away. Lots of people want to be the 'change from within'. I'm one of them - I spent years as a defense contractor despite the fact that I hate the US military industrial complex. But in the case of the police, it's prevented. Also, yes, the police sometimes do very good and important things. But Chris Rock has a joke about this - there can't be good airline pilots and bad airline pilots, all pilots have to be good pilots or there won't be pilots at all. Trust (in anyone but especially authority) takes 10 years to make and 10 seconds to break. So coming in at 50:50 just isn't good enough
- bruceb 5y ago
  Turning away a very high aptitude person would happen at a lot of jobs. Nobody wants to train someone and they leave relativity shortly after because the work easily bores them and they have many other options. Police training takes time and money, you are not patrolling the streets day 1. You don't need brilliant officers, need ones that are just not dumb, + don't have some power trip complex. This is true for many jobs.
bruceb 5y ago
The pay isn't that low in many places. Seattle police officers start at $65k+ with many (a majority?) earning $100k+. Benefits, good union, unlikely to get fired.
greedo 5y ago
Low pay? Hardly. I live in a small (300K) town in the midwest. My neighbor is a cop. He pulled $140K last year ($100k salary and $40k OT). Give me a break with that dangerous, underpaid copaganda.

gretch 5y ago

There's a documented court case where a person was disallowed to be a police officer after scoring too HIGH on an intelligence/aptitude test: https://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/story?id=95836 https://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/st... So even if "good" smart people with fair judgement go, they are turned away. Lots of people want to be the 'change from within'. I'm one of them - I spent years as a defense contractor despite the fact that I hate the US military industrial complex. But in the case of the police, it's prevented. Also, yes, the police sometimes do very good and important things. But Chris Rock has a joke about this - there can't be good airline pilots and bad airline pilots, all pilots have to be good pilots or there won't be pilots at all. Trust (in anyone but especially authority) takes 10 years to make and 10 seconds to break. So coming in at 50:50 just isn't good enough

bruceb 5y ago
Turning away a very high aptitude person would happen at a lot of jobs. Nobody wants to train someone and they leave relativity shortly after because the work easily bores them and they have many other options. Police training takes time and money, you are not patrolling the streets day 1. You don't need brilliant officers, need ones that are just not dumb, + don't have some power trip complex. This is true for many jobs.

bruceb 5y ago

The pay isn't that low in many places. Seattle police officers start at $65k+ with many (a majority?) earning $100k+. Benefits, good union, unlikely to get fired.

greedo 5y ago

Low pay? Hardly. I live in a small (300K) town in the midwest. My neighbor is a cop. He pulled $140K last year ($100k salary and $40k OT). Give me a break with that dangerous, underpaid copaganda.