I heard about this case a while ago, but never got around to posting it previously. Amazingly, back in September 2000 the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York decided it is lawful for the New London, Connecticut Police Department to not hire Robert Jordan on the basis that he is too intelligent for the job. Unfortunately, I’m not making this up. While this is more than a decade old, I think everyone should be aware of it. From ABC News:
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.
“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.”
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.
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.
Thirteen years later, how does it make you feel knowing this has been going on?
Full article here.
In Liberty,
Mike
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Back in 1982 when they hired me, they called it a “no brainer.”
*shrugs* Companies I’ve worked for don’t hire PhDs because we think They’d get bored doing mundane non-research work. Is that so bad?
Honestly, I’d rather not have government get in the middle of my hiring practices as a private employer. What rationale is there that the police departments should be treated differently?
Granted, the thought of unintelligent cops is a unpleasant one, but an IQ of 125 is by definition above average (average being 100). In fact, it’s a little less than two standard deviations from the average (standard deviation being 15).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient
I’d be interested in your thoughts here, Mike.
Yeah I do not agree, primarily because this is a Police Department. Would you be OK with a high school saying we won’t hire this teacher even though he/she just really wants to teach high school kids? They can claim he/she is so smart they should be teaching college or doing something else! Slippery slope. It’s not a black and white issue completely, but for a job like public safety and protecting the citizenry a IQ ceiling is absurd and dangerous IMO.
I thought some police became detectives and were tasked with solving crimes. Does this not require a good deal of intelligence? I had always thought so. Or do they want only people of “average” intelligence solving crimes? Besides, it’s not like jobs are falling from the skies these days. People need to work at whatever job they can find! The threat of poverty is enough of a motivator to keep police employed.
But the really disturbing thing about this is TPTB probably don’t want cops who are bright enough to think for themselves as countries march forward toward a police state. You wouldn’t want leaders in the ranks who are bright enough to realize that what they are being asked to do is wrong!
Totally agree! This policy also explains the increasingly alarming incidence of police brutality, corruption and the horrific increase in police murdering of innocent and unarmed civilians. Such a decision, that it is OK not to hire an intelligent applicant for police work, shows that the courts of appeal are filled with truly stupid judges. Stupid candidates for judgeships etc, always appeal to stupid voters. This becomes clear when one considers the mysterious popularity of Sarah Palin,
Nation wide stupidity arises when conservatives block funding for decent public education. Conservatives are intelligent enough, as were the founders of this country, to know that education is the Key. Therefore they do what they can to make sure real kids do NOT get real education.
As we march forward toward a police state culture, a culture BTW of utter brutality, we see plainly that TPTB do NOT want smart cops or smart voters, nor even progressive courts. They want to see corruption everywhere, because corruption more perfectly reflects who The Powers That Be actually are.
When stupidity is considered patriotic, it becomes unsafe to be intelligent.
Intellectuals are often the first target of despotic regimes. Not that 125 iq is an intellectual, but probably bright enough to understand how corrupt the system is. They are just heading off a whistleblower before he can find out how corrupt these public “servants” are.
Average to low IQ cops are perfect for the government and its friends.
They are smart enough to catch dumb criminals (usually the more violent) but are not smart enough to be a real threat to white collar criminals.
The high IQ criminals are able to engage in complex criminal acts that normal IQ policemen can not solve. They are good for SWAT entry in family homes in low income neighbourhood but no more.
I remember reading somewhere that the reason people with a certain IQ (not too smart) where hired was because someone with a high IQ would be more willing to question actions that were immoral. Hiring those with a lower IQ would be ideal because they were just smart enough to go along with whatever is asked of them………
Unfortunately they are also not smart enough to really figth smart criminals, the ones that think before committing a crime.
Because they didn’t do it to everybody, they can do it to anybody.
This is the logic of our courts today.
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