U.N. wants NYC cops for peacekeeping

UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asked New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Wednesday whether some of the city's police officers could be deployed with U.N. peacekeeping missions.

Recruiting police for the U.N.'s 16 peacekeeping missions around the globe has been historically challenging.

"New York City has one of the most diversified police forces around and I think the secretary-general would like to explore possibilities," U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said before the meeting. "Getting police to join peacekeeping operations is one of the high priorities for the U.N."

Bloomberg left the meeting without speaking to reporters. Stu Loeser, the mayor's spokesman, said his office had no comment.

New York City has recently fallen short of its police recruiting goals so it's unclear if it would have any officers to spare for international peacekeeping.

The U.N. peacekeeping department said 321 American police officers are currently involved in missions abroad, primarily training local police. Of those, 225 are in the Kosovo region of Yugoslavia, and others are in Haiti, Liberia and Sudan.

When I consider all the 'training officers' I ever had to tolerate...the now-retirees who, by virtue of their resumees, would be the most 'paper-qualified' to be hired...I shudder. These are the 'effete elite' who played their part in destroying domestic, plain-sense policing in the first place. Night school, a degree...a thorough dose of PC mind-bend and sensitivity training, a promotion to lieutenant or captain, and , VIOLA! These are not the guys I'd want over anywhere. [The UN would love 'em.]

The only exception I can think of is the sergeant who heads the SWAT team....still going after 35+ years: an Army reserve Master Sergeant who was wounded in Vietnam, stalked the desert in the 1991 Iraq war, and cleaned the streets of Fallujah in the first year of the current war....busting into houses full of bad guys and spraying lead. My hero. A guy like him would absolutely kick ass. But he would eat light bulbs and castrate himself before he worked for the indecisive, perfumed commanders in the UN. A bunch of peace keepers like that...and they might actually solve something. Can't have that! [Anything I ever learned on the job that was worthwhile , I learned from him.] Old-timers who retired without rank are usually no-nonsense, practical thinkers. They would never do for the UN's purposes. They are un-trainable. :^)

A good portion of the NYPD comes out of John Jay. I was up there not long ago and those kids looked sharp. Not like alot of the kids you see going to say, NYU or Columbia looking like they just rolled out of bed.

As much as I hate to admit it, the PC thing has its place in police work, but in NYC — not so much.

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