tadpole256

METRO NEWS BRIEFS: CONNECTICUT; Judge Rules That Police Can Bar High I.Q. Scores

A Federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a man who was barred from the New London police force because he scored too high on an intelligence test.
In a ruling made public on Tuesday, Judge Peter C. Dorsey of the United States District Court in New Haven agreed that the plaintiff, Robert Jordan, was denied an opportunity to interview for a police job because of his high test scores. But he said that that did not mean Mr. Jordan was a victim of discrimination.
Judge Dorsey ruled that Mr. Jordan was not denied equal protection because the city of New London applied the same standard to everyone: anyone who scored too high was rejected.
Mr. Jordan, 48, who has a bachelor's degree in literature and is an officer with the State Department of Corrections, said he was considering an appeal. ''I was eliminated on the basis of my intellectual makeup,'' he said. ''It's the same as discrimination on the basis of gender or religion or race.''

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knot_e_lady

Why in God's green earth would a police force not want a guy because he's too smart?

fxashun

You just answered your own question. Smart policeman is like a tall midget.

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waitingtables

Smart people usually question authority and blind obedience.

madengineer

When I saw this on this forum, I had to track it down for independent verification. It's true.

I've posted a couple times in this forum on the topic of racial IQ differences, and what I found when I read Herrnstein and Murray's The Bell Curve. For those unfamiliar, it's about how important IQ is in determining success, and explores related topics, like IQ differences among races and cultures, how the cognitive elite is separating itself from the rest of the population (to society's loss), the effect of IQ on parenting skills, etc. I highly recommend it.

I surmise that would seem to be happening in the case of the police story is that white test takers were scoring too well in the IQ test, which apparently was part of the hiring process. That was curtailing results in New London's affirmative action program.

We live in strange days, indeed, when politics trumps rational thought.

tristanrobin

*raises hand* New Haven resident here. It's all true. We've been hearing about it for awhile.

It's an absolutely STUPID idea. But then, it would be - the smart people aren't allowed to make rules. Right?

But it's hardly new. One of the biggest complaints people have had about some political candidates (Gore, Kerry, etc.) were that they were too intellectual. If America can decide being smart would be a bad thing in a president, why not keep the police force stupid, too?

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tristanrobin

Have you seen the plaintiff? I have seen his photo in the papers.

He's black.

STFU

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madengineer

If it's true that he's a black man, then I have to apologize for jumping to conclusions.

tyrone_det

There are studies that indicate that individuals with high IQ's are usually not well suited to police work. They tend to have high turnover and do not do well on the instinctive part of police work.

When someone pulls a gun on you, you have to react immediately -- you don't have time to debate your response. I work with some smart cops - but police smarts are different than the kind of smarts you have to do well on an IQ test.

tyrone_det

A well-educated black man will face more discrimination from other black officers than he ever will from white officers or management.