AFFIRMATIVE ACTION GONE BERSERK

The Democrats who run the City of Chicago are so anxious to get more minority (black) representation on the city’s police force that they are considering eliminating police entrance exams. What a lame-brained idea! Affirmative action gone berserk! That’s what the people of Chicago really need – a bunch of illiterate cops.

Earlier today, in my blog “Holy Grail Of The Left,” Paco showed us that affirmative action in higher education has not reduced the high black crime rate. Affirmative action in policing, if carried to Chicago’s extreme, will lower standards to the extent that orangutans would qualify as cops. Come to think of it, orangutans would probably be more capable than some of those illiterate affirmative action cops.

Here are some excerpts of this story from the Chicago-Sun Times:

CHICAGO POLICE MAY SCRAP ENTRANCE EXAM
Fraternal Order of Police President Mark Donahue said the idea "sounds too stupid to be true"

By Fran Spielman and Frank Main
Chicago Sun-Times
January 6, 2008

CHICAGO — The Chicago Police Department is seriously considering scrapping the police entrance exam to bolster minority hiring, save millions on test preparation and avert costly legal battles that have dogged the exam process for decades, City Hall sources said Tuesday.

If the process is opened to everyone who applies and meets education and residency requirements, Chicago would be virtually alone among major cities. Most cities have police entrance exams -- and for good reason, experts say.

"A background check and a psych [exam] alone will not eliminate some people who should not be there," said Brad Woods, who ran the Personnel Division under former Chicago Police superintendents Phil Cline and Terry Hillard.

Calling an application-only process a "step backward" and the "wrong way to go," Woods said, "When you lower your quality, you will get poor police service and more complaints. . . . Whenever you make it easier to be the police, you're doing the citizens and the Police Department a disservice."

Charlie Roberts, who ran the training division from 1995 to 1999, noted that there are 11 subject areas recruits must go through in the police academy, including the law and the municipal code.

"If you don't give someone at least a reading comprehension test, can you just put them in and risk the possibility of having so many of them fail? That could get quite expensive," Roberts said.

"We were getting people with 60 hours of college credit who were reading at a third-grade level. What do you think you'll get if you have no screening process?"