Why do lawyers train for 7 years to learn the law, but the cops only train for 8 weeks to enforce it?

submitted by magnora7 from preview.redd.it

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[–]VantaFount 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

What I find to be more sad is that officers of the law are not required to know the laws they're enforcing.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160601/07432834592/another-court-says-law-enforcement-officers-dont-really-need-to-know-laws-theyre-enforcing.shtml

[–]magnora7[S] 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (6 children)

I agree. Why do lawyers train for 7 years to know the law, but cops only train for 8 weeks to enforce it?

[–]VantaFount 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

It makes absolutely no sense at all, just like the IQ RESTRICTIONS that some departments place on their candidates.
It's almost as though they don't want people capable of intelligent thought anymore: They just want mindless thugs.

[–]joewest1313 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

IQ restrictions as you term there are in place because law enforcement is basically dull and higher intelligence individuals would find it boring and quit. Same as factory workers.. it requires a specific mindset and malleability.

I would rather have dullards writing tickets than high functioning sociopaths as officers.

[–]Chipit 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

They just want mindless thugs.

This is flat-out wrong, but it's emotionally fulfilling. I can see why you like this fallacy.

High IQ people are easily bored by the repetitive nature of police work. It's dull and the same all the time.

If they actually wanted to be police officers, wouldn't they be able to deliberately do poorly on the tests and thus be hired?

[–]danuker 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

You'd have to lie in order to serve society more effectively, huh.

You'd be like a reverse politician, who lies in order to mooch off society!

[–]Chipit 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

It's a legitimate question: if these high intelligence people are being excluded unfairly from serving as police officers, why aren't they using their intelligence to succeed at the objectives that they set?

I think it's just a talking point that people have grabbed onto and bash it to feel good. High intelligence people want no part of police work. It's endless patrol and when you do get a call, you have to deal with the worst of humanity. And then after you do, society shits on you. It's not a job that intellectuals would find stimulating.

[–]danuker 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Maybe it happens. We can not find out if someone purposely gamed their IQ test to get a specific goal.

But I believe your main point is realistic. There is little incentive for high IQ people to put up with boredom AND physical risk, as opposed to just boredom, such as in software development (at least in my experience).

As for salaries, I don't have data.

[–]Tom_Bombadil 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Because they don't want people to understand how the legal system operates, so the public cannot use it to improve their own lives, and in their own defense.

They're more than happy to allow the public to join the state sanctioned brute squad.

[–]NoahWebstersGhost 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Why do citizens need 15,000 hours of compliance training?

[–]Tom_Bombadil 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

For public compliance.

[–]Chipit 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Because police officers are blue collar, attorneys are white collar.

You need high intelligence to be an attorney, but it's not a requirement to be a police officer. In fact, it's a drawback. Police spend much of their time patrolling when nothing is happening. People of average intelligence can do this without complaint, but people of high intelligence find it dreary and dull, and want to do something that lets them use their intellects.

[–]Sebine 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Different states have different training course lengths.

I'll let you guess which states have the least amount of training.

[–]magnora7[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

I would guess Louisiana probably has the least.

This had some information about some states: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_academy

I'd love to see a US map with each state's training time though. I looked and I couldn't find one.

[–]Sebine 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

From what I was told it was anywhere majority democrat.

Funny that.

[–]magnora7[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Oh I was assumed you were implying the opposite, heh

[–]Sebine 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

From what my friend said, Texas had the longest.

"Everything is big in Texas. Including cop training.
Ignore the deer, we import bigger ones."

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

As a Texan myself I'd be incredibly surprised if that was true, to be honest.

In that wikipedia article it says this about Texas police academies:

Police academies typically last from 18 to 30 weeks, though there are many variations.

It might be true though, but if that's the longest then that's pretty sad lol

[–]butterferret12 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Whether you agree with their actions or not, they (police) are not there to enforce the law. They're there to quell disputed and other issues where some level of authority is necessary. After that, it's up to the lawyers -- and by extension judges -- to decide whether what was done, both by the cop and others involved, was legal or not, and whether any consequences should arise as a result.

If a cop had to sit there and decide if the exact scenario breaks or is within a certain part of a law nothing would be done, and their job would be irrelevant and unnecessary.

[–]magnora7[S] 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Whether you agree with their actions or not, they (police) are not there to enforce the law.

I agree. But they need to be constrained by the law too. They can't just go free-for-all because they feel like it. There needs to be repercussions for police misconduct. That's really the core of the issue

[–]knackers 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

They may only train for 8 weeks where you live.

It's a full on 9 month programme here.

Stop making global assumptions.

[–]magnora7[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I'm talking about the US police, where the protests are mostly taking place

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Nah, regimes all over the world crack down hard on protestors. Some gots secret police to make youse disappear. No accounting.

[–]Chipit 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Stop using American websites.

In fact, stop using the internet that we invented.

Oh, you won't be doing that? Instead you're going to take all of our free stuff and then complain about it. Yeah, that's typical.

"Hey I'm from a country you need to zoom in to notice, with population of few million, and I know all about USA but ignorant Americans don't know anything about me!"

It's like getting offended Drake doesn't know about you even though you know about him.

[–]whereswhat 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Where do you live that they train for 9 months?

[–]danuker 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Politicians need no training, yet they make the laws the lawyers have to interpret, and the cops to enforce.

[–]magnora7[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

That's a good point, I hadn't thought of extending the idea to politicians too