magma wrote:Do we believe the Police are qualified to make judgements about mental health as much as we believe mental health professionals are?
Reposting myself:
nowaysj wrote:And in passing, thought you might find this interesting:
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.
Jordan alleged his rejection from the police force was discrimination. He sued the city, saying his civil rights were violated because he was denied equal protection under the law.
But the U.S. District Court found that New London had “shown a rational basis for the policy.” In a ruling dated Aug. 23, the 2nd Circuit agreed. The court said the policy might be unwise but was a rational way to reduce job turnover.
Jordan has worked as a prison guard since he took the test.
This is widespread across US police departments.
To wub's first post.
I've got a family friend (so to speak), a new american family, maybe a valley family. Yes, Valley Family. Father is narcissistic and unavailable. Mother drank heavily. Kids were just left by themselves, 1, 2, 3 they developed mental issues. Divorce. Step mom is Trophy.
The oldest now just did her first year in high school. She is fuuuked. Like there are aspects of intelligence there, little islands of functional reasoning, but the whole thing is not working together. She's WAY into Japanese animation, like way way way into Japanese animation. She can speak most of the parts of her favorite programs in Japanese, but she doesn't know what she is saying. She's got a Roku box and a flat screen in a sort of basement, a low dark room under the house.
Will she turn out murdering people? She seems happy enough. Maybe when this half formed child is thrown out into the world, as I'm sure she will be... maybe? She will not have the skills to confront the world, a world were more and more people are living under underpasses, bridges, down by the river, and along the rail road tracks. A world already with little need of intelligent, competent people, let alone drugged and broken children of neglect.
And like you said Wub, I'll do nothing.
And dfault:
Your ignorance of the American psyche could be excused due to your distance and steady diet of propaganda, but I think it is actually a willful ignorance used redirect attention away from your nation's psyche which authored our specie's darkest century of human violence.
