If you're wondering how we might improve policing in the USA, you may be surprised at how easy that may be to accomplish. Results are achievable right now.
I'm not exaggerating.
I mean...
Have you ever wondered how the police could be so mind-numbingly stupid sometimes?
Like...
"I am Darren Wilson" bracelets?
Fucking.
Shit.
Really?
You're going to wear that shit after your guy just killed an 18 year old kid? And everyone in the neighborhood you patrol is burning with pent-up and barely contained anger?
You're going to leak stupid shit like "blown orbital socket" when you know - or should know - that the real pictures from that night will eventually be made public?
You know the stats... You know that "stop and frisk" puts more black than white kids in jail, even though your hit rate for contraband is higher for white people? And you cast crazy hate upon your new mayor because he wants to stop the practice?
Amadou Diallo. Abner Louima. Sean Bell. Troy Davis. Fred Hampton. Mike Brown. Eric Garner. Akai Gurley. John Crawford III. Tamir Rice.
All dead. Dead by state. (Or, perhaps, worse, in the case of Abner Louima).
Most dead by cop.
I don't know what's happened in St. Louis tonight, just two miles from Ferguson.
In Berkeley, MO.
But again... an Officer of the law... there to protect and...
eh...
fuck it...
the cliche ain't worth repeating because it means less than shit....
anyway... a cop was asked what his name was...
This was just an hour or so after Antonio Martin - another black teenager - had his life cut short by cop...
The protester asked a simple question... "What is your name, officer?"
The answer?
"My name is Officer Fuck You."
Antonio Martin's body was still warm... but still it was... flat on the pavement, just yards away.
Some reports say he was still struggling for life, but the police wouldn't help.
"My name is Officer Fuck You."
How are we stuck with cops so tragically clueless? How do we get stuck with police that are so infernally fucking stupid?
Well...
As it turns out...
They're hand-picked.
A man whose bid to become a police officer was rejected after he scored too high on an intelligence test has lost an appeal in his federal lawsuit against the city.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York upheld a lower court’s decision that the city did not discriminate against Robert Jordan because the same standards were applied to everyone who took the test.
“This kind of puts an official face on discrimination in America against people of a certain class,” Jordan said today from his Waterford home. “I maintain you have no more control over your basic intelligence than your eye color or your gender or anything else.”
He said he does not plan to take any further legal action.
Jordan, a 49-year-old college graduate, took the exam in 1996 and scored 33 points, the equivalent of an IQ of 125. But New London police interviewed only candidates who scored 20 to 27, on the theory that those who scored too high could get bored with police work and leave soon after undergoing costly training.
Most Cops Just Above Normal The average score nationally for police officers is 21 to 22, the equivalent of an IQ of 104, or just a little above average.
Is there anything else that could possibly explain this guy?
You want to change policing in the USA?
Start with this.
We're putting guns in their hands.
Can we please set some standards?
Please?