[cloudmountain]

Here in the northeast their status as “preferred minorities” supersedes all else (fitness, intelligence, mental health); for many it has become a workfare program. When the local paper showed a picture of a ceremony a few years ago when Newark NJ laid off 160 cops, you wouldn’t believe the fat asses on many of them (and they were the newest hires). A couple looked tough (probably military veterans); the rest weren’t about to enforce any laws that required them to stand up.

It's a shame really. The "thin blue line" needs push away from the dinner table sooner.

Police departments also changed TREMENDOUSLY when they decided that they HAD to hire lots of women cops. And they did. Unfortunately, TOO many of those women disabled out with all kinds of back injuries, knee problems, etc. It's one thing to say "we want more women in the police departments" and QUITE another thing getting women on the streets. I know FOR SURE that physical requirements had to be GREATLY lowered so that women could qualify.

I dunno. If you were in REAL physical danger, which would you rather see show up at your door: a 5'2" woman cop or a BIG, MEAN, UGLY Tact Squad cop? There are no WOMEN on any Tact squad I've ever heard of. But, then what do I know?

Side note: I don't think I've EVER seen a woman cop on a motorcycle, riding a police horse, holding on to those VICIOUS police dogs or being part of the "TACT squad."

Nowadays, as I keep up with those things, few women are "on the beat." They are riding their desks, instead of a patrol car.

[kearnyirish2]

A few miles south of me by Newark Airport they found a dead trucker who had been carjacked in PA; the carjackers had wrecked their car in PA, disarmed a police woman who stopped to assist, then stole and wrecked her car. The trucker stopped to help what he thought was a cop in distress, whereupon the creatures forced him to drive him to Newark where they killed him.

The she-cop lived, the trucker died, and this joined a list of similar stories in which females simply can’t protect their own weapons (have you seen the one where the convict knocks the she-cop out with one blow? His kids are in his car watching...). Here in NJ they discontinued the statepolice boxing that was part of their training because a woman was killed in the ring; I guess they just eliminated physical fitness as a requirement for them.

Police work should be like some military; do a few years in your prime (maybe set up something like GI Bill for training/education afterwards), then move on. In our early days this was never viewed as an industry unto itself...