I think you’re misunderstanding the point I was making. I’m not advocating the gatekeeping of higher education, I believe that the taxes I pay should enable anyone to go to college or a vocational program if they choose.
My point is that these colleges that cater specifically to law enforcement programs aren’t even remotely equivalent when compared to normal community colleges, let alone a university. They do the bare minimum to meet the legal requirements, teach the bare minimum required by the state law enforcement licensing board and instead substitute rhetoric and pseudoscience that reinforces mindsets in graduates that the streets are a warzone, minorities are cartel members, and that authority is more important than empathy.
Functionally, many of these specific programs don’t give any real education or experience above a GED where it matters, yet they parade that they do. They often call them “Law Enforcement” degrees, not criminal justice degrees, as they are not equivalent and can’t legally call them the same thing. But, they do conveniently tick the box of requiring a degree and do weed out anyone too who might question system too much or show too much empathy.
But, they do conveniently tick the box of requiring a degree and do weed out anyone too who might question system too much or show too much empathy.
As someone who lives in a big city full of cops and who has to live next to a few people in law enforcement, it doesn’t seem as though my city college or even my state university system degree programs keep ugly, nasty people from going into law enforcement. Family friend graduated with a law degree from Harvard and became a DA down in Austin, TX. It wasn’t Harvard that cheese-grated away her soul. I’ll spot you that plenty of local schools can be corrupted by the financial advantage of funneling people through a Cop School curriculum. But the thing that really seems to turn people into assholes and monsters is the job of being a cop.
Not disagreeing with you there. I have a myriad of reasons why I am no longer in that field, and that period of my life was a huge contributor in radicalizing me to the left, by US standards. You see and do a lot of fucked up shit and work with a lot of people who should be getting serious psychological treatment rather than carrying a gun and a badge, controlling a court room, determining who qualifies for social aid, or how someone in a cell should be rehabilitated. You get put in situations where you have to decide between doing right and putting a massive target on your back from the system.
That all being the case, there are still a lot of ignorant or just straight up shitty people who get reinforced by these programs to continue the cycle.
I think you’re misunderstanding the point I was making. I’m not advocating the gatekeeping of higher education, I believe that the taxes I pay should enable anyone to go to college or a vocational program if they choose.
My point is that these colleges that cater specifically to law enforcement programs aren’t even remotely equivalent when compared to normal community colleges, let alone a university. They do the bare minimum to meet the legal requirements, teach the bare minimum required by the state law enforcement licensing board and instead substitute rhetoric and pseudoscience that reinforces mindsets in graduates that the streets are a warzone, minorities are cartel members, and that authority is more important than empathy.
Functionally, many of these specific programs don’t give any real education or experience above a GED where it matters, yet they parade that they do. They often call them “Law Enforcement” degrees, not criminal justice degrees, as they are not equivalent and can’t legally call them the same thing. But, they do conveniently tick the box of requiring a degree and do weed out anyone too who might question system too much or show too much empathy.
As someone who lives in a big city full of cops and who has to live next to a few people in law enforcement, it doesn’t seem as though my city college or even my state university system degree programs keep ugly, nasty people from going into law enforcement. Family friend graduated with a law degree from Harvard and became a DA down in Austin, TX. It wasn’t Harvard that cheese-grated away her soul. I’ll spot you that plenty of local schools can be corrupted by the financial advantage of funneling people through a Cop School curriculum. But the thing that really seems to turn people into assholes and monsters is the job of being a cop.
Not disagreeing with you there. I have a myriad of reasons why I am no longer in that field, and that period of my life was a huge contributor in radicalizing me to the left, by US standards. You see and do a lot of fucked up shit and work with a lot of people who should be getting serious psychological treatment rather than carrying a gun and a badge, controlling a court room, determining who qualifies for social aid, or how someone in a cell should be rehabilitated. You get put in situations where you have to decide between doing right and putting a massive target on your back from the system.
That all being the case, there are still a lot of ignorant or just straight up shitty people who get reinforced by these programs to continue the cycle.