Part of what is wrong with this country

What a bunch of whiny babies. Cops SHOULD be in good shape, how else can they do what they were hired to do? I look at a lot of cops I see, and wonder how they keep their jobs. If they ever had to chase someone down the street, I know they'd never make it.

Granted, I'm not the most fit person on the planet, but then it's not my job to be. I do have certain duties to perform in my job, and if I can't I would expect to be canned. When I went into the Navy reserves, a few years back, I had to meet a weight requirement. Don't cops have the same standards?

Maybe the guy didn't use the greatest tact, but wouldn't a reprimand have served the purpose, and shouldn't the cops still be made to get back into shape? I'm not sure if that's what pissed you off Mylec, but that's what pissed me off.

They are only required to pass an extensive physical test at the time of hiring. So they obviously believe it is important for them to be in shape...but they don't require them to pass any type of physical once they are hired. Its retarded.

Maybe he could have been more tactful, but he didn't single anyone out to pick on them, the advice and reasons he gave were sound, and his viewpoint is absolutely correct. But that is how this country is, anymore. It doesn't matter that they are too fat to properly do their jobs, we just want people to feel good about themselves. Its not just the police force. I remember back when I was a kid if you spelled cat K A T you were wrong. Now, you're just expressing your creativity. Heaven forbid we tell a kid he is wrong, that may make him feel bad.

The cop situation ranks right up there with the military IMO. Women in the military. Men and women are equal...ok, I dont have a problem with that. But if they are equal, why are women not held to equal physical standards as men? If my ass is shot and laying on the ground, I'm pretty sure the 6 foot 200 pound guy is gonna get me out of there. I'm not quite as confident in the 5'2" 120 pound chick. Now if she can do it, great! You go, GI Jane! But that is usually far from the case. I do not speak from experience on that one, as I am not and never have been in the military but I have friends that were/are, and I hear about it from them.

I completely agree with you on the male/female issue as well.

While I'll fight tooth and nail to see that women get paid for doing the same job as a man, there is no way we are the same in all aspects of life!
In most cases a woman 5'8" isn't going to be as physically strong as a man of the same height. We're just not physically made up the same way.
Of course there are always going to be exceptions, but on the whole we are just not as physically strong.

I do know that to qualify as a firefighter, a woman has to be able to do exactly what a man does, as far as being able to lift and carry the hoses, and people. Consequently, you don't see as many female firefighters as you do in other jobs. But you're right Mylec...if they can't save those they need to, then they can't do the job.

The issue of being a required weight to get the job and then not maintaining it reminds me of other similar issues though. Like doctors who finish all their schooling, go into private practice, and after ten or so years don't do anything to refresh their knowledge.

It seems to me that maybe some sort of licensing should be made of people who deal with the lives of others, and those licenses should then only be renewed after they successfully complete certain recertifying processes. And in the situation where these types of weight requirements are necessary, it would seem annual check ups would be a good idea. That way if things look like they're getting a little out of hand, something can be done sooner, rather than later when it's even more difficult.

You guys pretty much said how I feel. The only thing I'll add is "fuck tact". We are to worried about hurting peoples feelings anymore.

With that I have a mostly nonrelated story that I want to tell because that is what I do.

When I was in high school I joined up in ROTC. Now I wrestled, and lifted, and was a smaller guy so I'm built for things like pushups etc. I decided I wanted that spiffy looking black barret so I went out for ranger team with a friend. My only problem was endurance running so I had to work on that. We got together for weeks up until the test (me and the friend) running and working on other things so we'd be able to pass the ranger test and get the barret. A bunch of fat kids went out for it too - they had no hope. When it came time for the test. I was the only person in the entire class to pass. So what do they do? They lowered the standards down so every muthafucka got in. My barret meant jack and shit. Thanks fat kids for making me instead be forced to wear an award that said "hey look at me I did pushups with fat kids!" every uniform day.

The end.

Yeah Vul, but at least you know you truly earned yours. Not to mention, you showed drive, discipline and committment to doing it right. That will still get you farther in the long road than any of the ones that "did their best". Stay the course.

The military does have the 'fat boy' program. They have to do their PT tests and believe me, I light a candle when I look at Mike. He's 33, been in the military 13 years and he's in the best shape he's ever been. Coming back from Kyrg, he lost about 20lbs and his boxers hang on him now. He keeps fit because he's afraid of failing his test and they boot guys out for it. Cops should have to pass a yearly test. It's bullshit they don't.

This wife of a friend of ours is trying to be a cop out here in Anchorage. APD is DESPERATE for new people and if they're even remotely interested in this chick...she's like 5'8, probably 210 or so and has back problems, takes prozac (not that there's anything wrong with that) and doesn't work out. She failed the physical test by like 29 seconds. She had to do like a crap load of stuff in 4 mins or something. One of which was drag a 165lb body like 50 feet or something. She could barely do that. It took her 4-5 tries to get over a 5ft wall.

So she tells us this when we had them and another couple over this past weekend. She can retest again in Jan. So my other girlfriend and I say, 'oh you have plenty of time to work out and pass that.'

Then she goes into this LOOOOOOOOONG schpeel about how she can't work out. Well wtf, why do you want to be a cop? She says she wants to do CSI shit. Well you STILL have to pull regular duty and that's fucking walking a beat, doing physical shit. She starts to blame her husband and 11 MONTH OLD CHILD for the reason she can't work out. Blah blah blah. My girlfriend and I sat there and said, 'oh try this, try this, try this,' and she gave every conceivable excuse known to man.

Yeah, I want her protecting me.

Well that was just a random story from years ago in high school :P I find the entire thing a bit sad and funny, but that's it - doesn't effect me at all

People see those CSI shows and think that is how it is in the real world. No real world CSI does all the stuff they do, although she probably thinks they do. And from the way you describe her, she definitely isn't Marg Helgenberger

Random derailment.... My ex got out of the Air Force for being a fat fuck. Its not one test failure and you get dishonorable discharge. You have like 12 months of training time to get back to the standard and at least half a dozen tests. And while its not honorable, its not dishonorable.

Yeah, random factoid from uh.... 8 years ago.

At that time, even now, the military in general has pretty lenient physical fitness standards. At the time in the Air Force basically it was a once a year bicycle test (supposedly designed to test you submaxial heart rate) and it was hit or miss whether or not you would pass. Now failing that wouldn't not get you kicked out, even failing a few times. As long as you kept going to the gym and did "supervised" workouts you would be fine.

The thing that would get you kicked out at that time was your height to weight ratio. Basically depending on how tall you were you were assigned a max weight you could be, and then if you were overweight they would measure your bodyfat and if you failed that you be put on the program and weighed/body fat measured each month. As long as you either lost 5 pounds or 1% of body fat you were considered progressing. Hell you could GAIN 20 pounds and lose 1% and be fine and then the next month gain 2% and lose 5 pounds. It could result in you being on the program for a long time. However, you only had four chances to not progress and then 99% of the time you would be discharged with an honorable discharge

Being that I used to work with these case files and such I only saw one person get discharged, and it was bundled together with other issues. Needless to say the chain of command can be pretty lenient when they were doing this program if you were outstanding/good at your job.

As for your ex being discharged, I have no doubt in my mind that his discharge was not for the sole reason of failing the weight management program. There had to be other disciplinary issues at work there.

Also 8 years ago they still had the people in the orderly rooms, people like me, doing the body fat measurements. So again if you were decent, I knew of several people who did similar tests that would be more lenient on your measurements if you were a good guy, messed up I know, but that is human nature to be more forgiving to those that are sympathetic. And they weren't trained, just using a ribbon measuring tape and taking the measurements of your neck and waist.


Phew, sorry for the long tangent.

Actually he used that system to get out deliberately.