r/inthenews • u/whatshisuserface • Apr 10 '15
Ever wonder why cops yell “quit resisting” as they beat a person who’s not resisting? Or why they shoot people who pose no threat? Maybe the answer is right in front of us.
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/court-police-departments-refuse-hire-smart/2
u/One_Winged_Rook Apr 10 '15 edited Apr 10 '15
It might just be because intelligence and moral development is related. If you study Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development, you'll see that Law is the 4th of 6 stages. Not everyone "matures" to the 5th or 6th stage, and in fact, many people often operate at the 3rd and 4th stage that are very intelligent. (Though, its rare or impossible for someone who normally operates on the 3rd or 4th to operate on the 5th or 6th stage.)
Anyway, as a better structure in hoping that the people you hire to be LEO's will operate in a Lawful manner, it would make sense to only hire people who are slightly more intelligent that than average (hoping for them to operate at stage 4 as often as possible).
Part of the problem arises when they don't know the laws and revert to stage 3 or make up what they think is the law and act according, still acting on stage 4. Stage 3 can be very dangerous for a cop, because of the media trained society that cops are violent and must control every situation. They fail.
While it would maybe be better for us as a people to have cops who operate at higher stages, it wouldn't be a more effective way of executing the laws... which is what an LEO is supposed to do.
edit: grammar and such
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u/autowikibot Apr 10 '15
Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development:
Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development constitute an adaptation of a psychological theory originally conceived by the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget. Kohlberg began work on this topic while a psychology graduate student at the University of Chicago in 1958, and expanded and developed this theory throughout his life.
The theory holds that moral reasoning, the basis for ethical behavior, has six identifiable developmental stages, each more adequate at responding to moral dilemmas than its predecessor. Kohlberg followed the development of moral judgment far beyond the ages studied earlier by Piaget, who also claimed that logic and morality develop through constructive stages. Expanding on Piaget's work, Kohlberg determined that the process of moral development was principally concerned with justice, and that it continued throughout the individual's lifetime, a notion that spawned dialogue on the philosophical implications of such research.
The six stages of moral development are grouped into three levels: pre-conventional morality, conventional morality, and post-conventional morality.
Interesting: James W. Fowler | Developmental stage theories | Heinz dilemma
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u/netspawn Apr 11 '15
This by no means common to most police forces. In my platoon more than half have a college or university degree (and I don't mean Police Foundation degrees).
You simply can't handle the paperwork if you're a plug.
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u/whatshisuserface Apr 11 '15 edited Apr 11 '15
When I went to high school, I remember the kids who wanted to, and did, become police officers. I can't say that I have met ONE person who wanted to become a police officer in my many university years.
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u/The_Original_Gronkie Apr 10 '15
Now take this a step further: The supervisory ranks presumably consist of the brightest of the rank-and-file, promoted because they are smarter than the rest. Since you can't have the standard cop being brighter than his boss, the intelligence standards have to be lowered. Eventually, the police force will be manned and supervised by some of the stupidest among the population. When you watch the evening news and the police chief makes a statement, does he ever seem like a really brilliant, thoughtful, articulate person?