Re: [lpsf-discuss] Bill Would Require Police Officers to be 25 or Hold Bachelors Degree / New LPSF Forum email lists

Hmmm. I have mixed feelings about this, Richard. People are individuals, and the age discrimination fails to recognize that, instead painting all under-25-year-olds with the same broad brush as inherently less qualified. I’m also not a fan of credentialism. Do we really want more incentives for individuals and families to throw their money at overpriced universities in the grip of far left political correctness and identity politics?

The counter-argument would be the “practical” consideration that younger police officers do tend to be disproportionately hot-headed compared to their more seasoned colleagues, and that, in the case of future police officers, more exposure to the liberal atmosphere of academia might actually tend to do them some good.

Still, I’m not sure I can support the bill, let alone get enthused about it. I just hope this milquetoast measure won’t dampen any energy or momentum for more substantive police reforms. What’s really needed (short of strong libertarian solutions like abolishing government police or at least all the victimless “crime” laws they’re expected to enforce) is a complete overhaul of police academy training. Make it transparent and open to the public, and design it to weed out the thuggish, yahoo types who want to be police officers because they enjoy being bullies and telling other people what to do.

Love & Liberty,

((( starchild )))
Chair, Libertarian Party of San Francisco

P.S. – I’d like to remind everyone to stop posting on the Yahoogroups lists and from now on post to the new Forum.LPSF.org lists instead:

LPSF-Discuss@Forum.LPSF.org (open list for whatever folks want to discuss)
LPSF-Activists@Forum.LPSF.org (party business and local activism for our active members, by invite)

LPSF-Announce@Forum.LPSF.org (low-volume limited-posting list for news and announcements only)

I believe all the subscribers to our Yahoogroups lists, which Yahoo (Verizon) is shutting down on December 16, have been transferred over to the new LPSF Forum lists, along with many of our past messages to those lists. So posting to LPSF-Discuss@Forum.LPSF.org should reach the same set of people you would be reaching at the Yahoogroups address, except that your message will be archived for the future at Forum.LPSF.org. Anything further you post to Yahoogroups at this point likely won’t be archived and saved but will disappear from the Internet this coming Wednesday! So I encourage everyone to start using the new list addresses above. Put them in your address books, and visit the new site at Forum.LPSF.org to create an account for yourself so you can learn and use the other features of the new site.

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