The last thing law enforcement in Washington State needs is another barrier to hiring cops, right? The entire state has been gutted by China flu-related mandates, defunding the police movements, mass retirements, and cops getting fed up and leaving the force.
Now, here comes yet another round of “woke” nonsense to hobble the Washington State Patrol (WSP). WSP Chief John Batiste just reassigned the agency’s psychologist for passing too few minorities—or for passing too many white people, depending on how you want to interpret the situation. Some of us believe he passed the people who were best for the job, and race had nothing to do with it.
Daniel Clarke has been the WSP staff psychologist for 27 years. He screened new recruits for the agency.
In September, The Seattle Times reported a supposed lack of diversity among applicants who pass the psychological exam part of the process to become a cop with WSP. The paper reported that 20% of white candidates were passed over in the last four years, compared to 33% of black applicants, 35% of Hispanic candidates, and 41% of Asian applicants.
“I treat everybody as an individual and make my recommendations based on an individual assessment,” Clark informed the Times after his reassignment.”Psychologically, I don’t believe that there is bias.”
Not to mention, the psychological tests are nationally administered written exams.
Now would be a great time to mention that Seattle’s first black, female chief of police, Carmen Best, resigned, in part, due to pressure from what she called dishonest media in the wake of last year’s riots. Of course, the media screaming “defund the police” last year are the same media now saying there aren’t enough black people in Washington state’s law enforcement agencies. But let’s face it: it’s hard for BLM and the woke left to cry about “systemic racism” in police departments where the top cop is black. Best had to go, as did other black police chiefs, and the media was happy to help. Now the same lefty media claims it’s “racism” that’s keeping black people from becoming cops. Welcome to commie bizarro land.
Washington’s governor, Jay Inslee, is down with the cause and is pushing for more diversity in his state’s law enforcement agencies. This, after he already signed 12 police reform laws earlier this year, which apparently aren’t enough. It’s worth noting that Washington has never had a black, Hispanic, or Asian governor. Yet, there have been no reports of Inslee offering to step down in the name of diversity and hand his gig to a minority.
Democrat Washington State Rep. Bill Ramos claims that he and other legislators first brought the original Seattle Times article to Gov. Inslee’s attention.
“It’s been the work we’ve been doing for a number of years, but this finally just put it out on the table for everybody to see,” Ramos stated. “We basically went in and said, ‘Here, look, have you read this article? Are you aware of what’s happening?’”
Washington state has since hired Public Safety Psychological Services to evaluate would-be police officers through June of 2022. They use an A–F grading system, rather than Clark’s “recommend,” “marginal,” and “not recommend” grading style. Will this mean more black cops? Does race matter? Only to a leftist.
Personally, I prefer a cop, doctor, pilot, or comedian who has proven they know what they are doing. Can you imagine being on a plane that smashes into a skyscraper because the pilot was hired on the basis of “diversity,” not competence?
The findings reported by the Seattle Times are obviously not proof of WSP hiring bias. It’s a summation of test scores, but the left will find racism in a tree if allowed. I’m afraid to ask for my coffee served black, if I can even find a place in Seattle to buy a cup.
Source: PJ Media
