Shot in the Dark

Win-Win

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Ramsey County Sheriff Bostrom is retiring to move to England to study whether it would improve law enforcement if they hired persons of good character as police officers. 

The fact he’s having to go all the way to Oxford to find anybody willing to seriously consider the question shows just how far American academic and law enforcement standards have fallen.

 Meanwhile, St. Paul has decided the less people know about law enforcement practices, the better police oversight will be.  So when civil rights activists complained the Internal Affairs Review Commission was biased, the City ordered a report of interviews with 25 people conducted by the U of M Center for Restorative Justice and now the Council has decided to adopt the recommendations of the “study.”  Kick the cops off, pack it with activists, move it out of the police department, hold meetings out in the neighborhoods and give its recommendation to the Chief of Police.

 My question is: when the Commission finds that a St. Paul cop acted wrongly but the Chief of Police declines to accept that decision on the grounds the reviewers don’t know what they’re talking about, will there be more peace in the community, or less?

 Joe Doakes

Either way, the needs of both the bureaucracy and the “activist” communities – both fully-owned subsidiaries of the DFL – are served.

And that’s called a win-win!

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Comments

3 responses to “Win-Win”

  1. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    Now if he comes back saying that yes, indeed, hiring for character works, I’ll be looking forward to watching the fur fly as otherwise “qualified” applicants are shown the door. It’ll be 1992 (“It’s the economy, stupid”) on steroids.

  2. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    Years ago, I worked for a government agency in the Recruiting and Examining Division. We reviewed civil service tests for compliance with employment and civil rights law – making sure the test criteria effectively measured the skills required for legitimate job duties. One of line managers’ favored tricks was “Must be left-handed, red-haired with a 4-year degree in English Lit and recent travel to Prague” which, oddly enough, only a single applicant possessed, generally a nephew. Explaining why that violated the law was never a fun conversation.

    I can’t wait to see the objective criteria by which the police hiring office will measure “good character.”

  3. Bill C Avatar
    Bill C

    …Chief of Police declines to accept that decision on the grounds the reviewers don’t know what they’re talking about

    As the CoP serves at the pleasure of the only the Mayor, I highly doubt he’d hire someone who hasn’t been carefully vetted, and groomed to never reject the decisions of the reviewers. Community uber alles.

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