Duke Asks: “Is It Time To Ban Girl Cops?”

By Selwyn Duke

“Well, that’s very stylish.” So said tough silver-screen cop Dirty Harry Callahan, in the 1976 film The Enforcer, reacting to a feminist initiative. Its goal was, a woke female official informed, to “broaden the areas of participation for women in the police force.”

This was, of course, art imitating life, and today we’re so stylish that it doesn’t even seem stylish anymore. It does, however, seem dangerous and foolhardy to many — and you can count Duke among them.

I’ll let the reader figure out if this includes me. But right now I’m talking about Daily Caller senior editor Amber Duke. Fed up with the recent sad and tragic mob-attack spectacle in Cincinnati, Ohio, Duke asks, “Is It Time To Ban Girl Cops?”

My, my, now that is a third rail of American social commentary.

Reviewing what happened in Cincinnati, Duke’s colleague, Geoffrey Ingersoll, wrote Tuesday:

A middle-aged [white] woman was knocked out cold on Cincinnati’s streets a few nights ago. The video of it went viral. It showed a violent mob [of black people] viciously attacking at least two [white] men while onlookers filmed and egged everyone on. She appears to have not been a primary instigator in the violence. Rather, she was putting herself in harm’s way to keep the peace when a man flat-out cold-cocked her, knocking her out instantly.

… The woman fell to the ground unconscious, her sundress piling up near her midsection. Her dignity was not intact. Her mouth was bleeding profusely.

The Queen City’s Queen Bee Cop

As for talking profusely, about the wrong things, Duke says this is precisely what the Queen City’s female police chief is guilty of. As Duke wrote Thursday:

Cincinnati Police Department Chief Teresa Theetge, during a Monday press conference, deflected blame and had the gall to chastise the public for sharing video of the attack. Theetge accused “mainstream” journalists of misrepresenting what happened — what we saw with our own eyes on VIDEO — and making it “more difficult” for police to do their job.

The chief also related that only one person called the police even though there were approximately 100 people on scene. Duke wonders, too, how seriously Theetge’s department would’ve taken the attack if social media hadn’t publicized it, which it did.

We know the answer, though. It would’ve been memory-holed (and still will be to some extent) like countless other black-on-white attacks. For Theetge would likely rather ignore it, much as politically correct U.K. cops ignored Muslim gangs’ rape and torture of thousands of white British girls. Thus did she also express anger over social media’s revealing of the truth. (And thus does the Left wants internet censorship.)

Staying True to Form

Duke revealed more dirt on Theetge, too. She’s being sued by members of her own department, for instance, for anti-white-male race and sex discrimination.

Duke then writes, referencing Theetge’s nonsensical verbal emanations, “I am honestly over female cops.” Their behavior too often just doesn’t reflect well upon the “fairer” sex.

One could imagine, however, a male Cincinnati police chief toeing the woke line, too. After all, responding to city leaders’ political pressure is how to get and keep such a job. Yet there’s more to it.

The Hard Truths

Of course, Theetge may very well be the leftist the politically correct leaders want as top cop. For certain, too, is that female police chiefs tend to be DEI hires, elevated purely to be “stylish.” Yet it’s not just women chiefs. As Duke also tells us:

One study found that female cops are more likely to perceive danger in the community and are more suspicious of citizens. [Read: More likely to be paranoid about their safety — i.e., more frightened.] Another found that female cops are more likely to be assaulted in family conflict situations. A third found that women are not at greater risk of being injured overall than male cops but are less likely to use deadly force. [Yes, that will happen when you don’t engage with criminals]. Finally, female cops are less likely to arrest someone for an arrestable offense when not observed by a supervisor [i.e., less likely to do their job].

The data suggests to me that female cops deliberately avoid situations that could escalate to having to use force.

Of course, this is well known. Just consider the arrest of 400-pound Eric Garner in 2014. Male cops were taking him down; a female cop, Sgt. Kizzy Adonis, was on scene “supervising.”

The Deeper Issues

Yet the more fundamental matter is virtually never addressed here: Why have female cops in the first place? Why is this an imperative?

Equality?

That goes out the window as a principle (not as a ploy) because only men have to register for the draft. Only men are required to make the ultimate sacrifice for our nation. And if they can have responsibilities women don’t, they also can have opportunities women don’t. That’s called balance.

Moreover, as I’ve explained, equality is a nonsensical measure. For “equality tells us nothing about quality.”

Know, too, that women never had to meet “equal” standards to become police in the first place. That is, beginning in the 1970s, police exams were dumbed down via the principle of “disparate impact.” This principle states that if different groups perform differently on a test, the test is by definition unjustly discriminatory. (See “Eric Holder’s DOJ Suing Police for Treating Women Equally.) It was on this basis that police height requirements were struck down as illegal, for example.

Then there was the beautiful little girl I saw in NYC in a police costume about 25 years ago. Was she attending a party?

Actually, she was a miniature cop. How effective could she have been? As a woman close to me once put it, “A man can command respect.” A woman, she said, is “ridiculous” in the law enforcement role. And, yes, image and psychological effect matter.

This Isn’t Stenography

Yet there’s a more tangible reality here, too, as police work often has a serious physical dimension. As to this, what is the best use of resources?

To grasp sex differences’ profoundness, consider that in the 400- and 800-meter runs, the records for 14-year-old boys are better than the women’s world records. (Fourteen-year-old lads beat the top female soccer teams, too.) Now, imagine you were recruiting people to field the best possible track team. Would you choose some elderly? Some little children? The handicapped? And then:

Would you recruit some women, in “equality’s” name?

No, you’d find the most athletic, most gifted young men you could.

Why should it be different with the police (or military, for that matter)? Why use limited resources to train lower-potential candidates?

Note, too, that virtually all departments have age limits, with applicants over 34-41 ineligible. Why can’t there be sex limits as well?

Or, is there a discourse limit on asking that question?

Addendum: The two videos below present examples of the folly of “stylish” police hiring policies. The first video is a comedic one I created last year.

                  This article was originally published at The New American.