WHY WOMEN?

Eight months ago, racist and sexist graffiti was drawn o on the lockers of two women firefighters – one black, one white - inside a Houston fire station. When an investigation failed to discover who was responsible, the case was turned over to the FBI. The FBI has now reported that it could also not determine who was guilty of this offense. Obviously, there is some resentment by male firefighters against having women on the force.

I have a good friend who is a retired Houston firefighter and arson investigator. He claims that the Houston Fire Department is way ahead of the New York City Fire Department which he said had very few women on its force. To that I say: So what! Why do we have to have women firefighters in the first place? Why do we have to have women cops? Why do we have to have women serving on America’s submarines? Why? Because it’s politically correct!

Back in the 1970’s, the San Diego Police Department was under heavy criticism because it’s affirmative action program was not working. Their height standards kept Latinos and Asians out. Their intelligence entry standards kept blacks out. And their physical standards kept women out. When they lowered their minimum height requirement it still kept Latinos and Asians out, forcing them to do away with any height requirements at all. They dumbed-down their intelligence standards to accommodate black applicants and they lowered their physical standards for women applicants.

Dr. Mike Roberts, a highly regarded police psychologist, says that when you lower standards to accommodate any protected (by law) group you lower the standards for everyone and far more white males will benefit from the lowered standards than minorities and women. Dr. Roberts said that SDPD’s revised standards led to the hiring of a bunch of short, dumb, weak white male cops.

One of our military services - I think it was the U.S. Navy – had a requirement as part of its basic training program that two trainees must be able to carry a stretcher with a 150 pound weight for a specified distance and time. When hardly any of the women trainees were able to accomplish this feat, the requirement was changed to four trainees carrying one stretcher with more time allowed to accomplish that exercise.

Because only one woman – movie actress Demi Moore – has ever been able to complete the Navy Seals training program in which 75 percent of the male trainees drop out, why doesn’t the Navy lower the physically demanding standards of the Seals in order to accommodate women?

The submarine service is a gateway for the promotion to flag officer (admiral) in the navy. But do we have to spend millions of dollars retrofitting our submarines to accommodate the privacy of women just so they will have a better chance to be promoted to a captain or admiral?

Most police agencies require that their recruits possess a certain degree of physical stamina, strength and agility. That is as it should be. But many of the obstacle courses for police applicants and for police trainees have exercises with little relevance to every day police work. In my thirteen years on the streets, I can only recall two or three occasions when I had to scale a six-foot wall or fence and I never had to go hand-over-hand underneath a set of monkey bars. And since I was never on a SWAT team, I never had to climb up or down a long rope either. Those types of exercises are difficult enough for men, if not impossible for women.

My point is that as long as certain physical standards are relevant to the job, they should not be lowered just to accommodate women. And if a certain amount of intelligence – and don’t give me that crap about “common sense” – is necessary for the job, don’t lower those standards just to accommodate blacks or Latinos.

I don’t have a problem with women in the police, fire protection and military services as long as they can do the job, but don’t lower the entry level standards just so we can hire a bunch of ‘broads.’ (Man, are the feminists going to jump all over me for using that term.) For the most part, our police and fire protection services can function just fine without any women cops or firefighters. And our submarines can operate very well with out any women being aboard. But then all of that is politically incorrect.