Said one Manhattan police officer, quoted in "NYPD to go ‘old school’ by banning facial hair and changing uniforms, new video reveals: ‘Bring back some traditions’" (NY Post).
Retired NYPD sergeant Joseph Giacalone, an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said: "I was against all the beards.... It’s about a sense of pride.... This is absolutely a necessary aspect about showing a good front to the community because I think once the cops look good that comes with a modicum of respect because people perceive if you look like a slob they treat you like one."
The named person speaks in terms of looking "good" and the unnamed person speaks in terms of "hip hop" characteristics.
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31 comments:
It is true. These days I go into too many professional offices where one or more.staff are just.slobs. Dressed not in even low-end business casual from Target, but outright on-the-couch with a bag of Doritos clothing. Sweatpants, crocs, bare midriff.
Shabby attire for an increasingly shabby America.
The social role depends on a "men in charge" image. Structure over feelings.
If women are in charge as women, there's no law.
George Steinbrenner should have brought the police force.
But Glenn Reynolds is worried about the wrong thing, it’s organized crime, and they will earn their protection money, like in the old days. We can have good old fashioned gang wars, like in the old days.
america is a shithole.. This "country" sucks.
Appearance sets a tone that tends to improve professionalism, but I don't see the appearance thing to be what's ludicrous in NYPD. I watched the video. How those people are just let go by the DA and people still will vote Democrat is beyond me. At this point, what happens to New Yorkers is completely on them. If they only rally in the streets to protect BLM and Hamas and not to protect themselves, too bad. It will just be bad luck.
If you look at pictures of that retired cop you'll see two things one, he's pretty young looks to be late 40s early 50s. What's the pride and retiring as a young man? The second thing is he's a fat fuck. Where is the pride in being a sloppy lumpy soft bag of goo?
Obviously long fingernails should be banned because they impede with the physical ability of the job. The color of your hair or your facial hair or tattoos has nothing to do with the job. I've seen plenty of photographs of special forces in the field with long hair beards and tattoos. The one thing you don't see are signs of obesity and sloppy physical conditioning.
What is the Bible say? Something about straining out nats while letting camels pass.
It’s called a “uniform” for a reason. Individualized features —unless agreed or required by the organization (e.g. rank, merit, specialization)— are contrary to the concept and weaken the effect. No room for fingernail polish or slogan shirts.
You may not *like* the uniformity but you can’t argue that it has a unique psychological and social force and a force multiplier when deployed. Part of the message it sends is “Yes, this uniform demands effort to create, maintain and present. If you think about the effort we put into mere appearances, you should think also how much *more* effort we put into what you can’t readily see: our physical, mental and organizational readiness. Therefore you should believe that we are what we appear to be: no better friend, no worse enemy.”
If you don’t like it: don’t sign up. Or vote it out. Don’t pout and posture.
I believe the shaving requirement was originally relaxed because of disparate racial impact.
Pseudofolliculitis barbae (razor bumps) is a common condition of the beard area occurring in up to 60% African American men and other people with curly hair. The problem results when highly curved hairs grow back into the skin causing inflammation and a foreign body reaction. Over time, this can cause keloidal scarring which looks like hard bumps of the beard area and neck. Shaving sharpens the ends of the hairs like a spear. The hairs then curve back into the skin causing pseudofolliculitis barbae.
A 100% effective treatment is to let the beard grow. Once the hairs get to be a certain length they will not grow back into the skin.
No face tats. Try that one...
...the trouble with these 'standards' is they can backfire and are often based on defunct rules of style. Some guys keep beards neat and tidy and look good. Some of those Dutch guys look great with the long hair and beard, like Jesus.
Golf clubs have lots of dumb fashion rules like tuck your collared golf shirt in your shorts. That one goes over well here, dunnit?
The article mentioned that the beard rule was relaxed to accommodate Sikh officers, but the photos show scrubby beards and sleeve tattoos. Pink hair and crazy finger nails has nothing to do with accommodating religious beliefs.
There is no question that how you look effects how people respond. Looking more professional should be a minimum expectation.
Police officers should be fit, not obese, and project a professional image. There is an impact to the presentation.
However, if they're going to get jumped by seven illegal aliens, and they all walk away without punishment, what's the point?
Weird that as a society, we started taking style cues from nerdy engineers working in tech companies about 15 or so years ago. So...untucked shirts became such a thing it created it's own branding. No shaving, no hair brushing, tats wherever, awful matching clothes, etc. Those guys (and they were guys) looked like they missed their mommies dressing them. Yet that 'style' influenced and entered the mainstream of America and Western culture.
I think back to the Cary Grant era- how men used to dress, vs how they dress today. We're so sophisticated today, we allow ourselves to dress like slobs and call it 'fresh'.
he's pretty young looks to be late 40s early 50s
There's often a young mandatory retirement age for police, especially for elite units. Sometimes it is practical, because of physical demands of the job and/or the mental stress of years of service and sometimes it's because you can double dip on defined benefit pensions...
Wasn't Nixon a populist, like Trump?
It's not far-fetched (for me) to believe Elvis, if he were alive, would endorse Trump.
Scott Adams was talking about this in yesterday's coffee with Scott Adams.
(See rh's comment 👆🏽)
Enforce a physically fit level for the police and a lot will disappear. By 'enforce' I mean make them stay fit and have to demonstrate it yearly.
"Golf clubs have lots of dumb fashion rules like tuck your collared golf shirt in your shorts."
I prefer golf clubs that do not allow gentlemen to wear shorts at all. Adult men should wear trousers unless they are running or playing ball sports.
I assume they'll allow black male officers to have short beards because of that skin condition. The point is discipline and unity. In Atlanta, many or most of the police are black, and those on the street seem fit and very professional. Two decades ago this wasn't always the case. It's the leadership that sets the tone. I feel sorry watching these black guys endure abuse from the white, rich, skanky comp lit--eco-terrorist cop haters who have set up encampments around the city. Hopefully they'll decamp for Chicago early for the Democrat convention.
That is going to be one terrible s*** show.
I like a well-groomed beard on just about every man - I find them as professional-looking as a clean-shaven face. Well-groomed is key, though.
Not having facial hair, I don't know: what's harder to take care of, beard or no beard? My husband has refused to grow a beard for thirty years now (he had one when we were dating) because he says he'll look like Santa Claus, so he's no help.
Serpico had a beard.
Give me an ethnic Sikh police officer with a beard and a turban or a bearded, tatted redneck looking dude, and I'll bet riots end fast in their vicinity. Give me a pink haired female officer with long nails and I'll bet she can do better undercover work in NYC bars and nightclubs than the two guys. Diversity of appearance can be utilized for diversity of law enforcement requirements.
Just don't send the lady officer with the overlong nails to work the riot, without the other two going along. Diversity goals should never overrule reality.
Jamie said...Not having facial hair, I don't know: what's harder to take care of, beard or no beard? My husband has refused to grow a beard for thirty years now (he had one when we were dating) because he says he'll look like Santa Claus, so he's no help.
Beards are harder to keep neat. Especially if you want to maintain a certain length and not turn into Grizzly Adams. One should, for example, always maintain a shaved neck such that there is a clean line at the base of the beard. Plus you don't want it growing over your mouth which is gross when eating or drinking.
I had a beard for several years and it looked awful (I have curly hair), but that was kind of the point at that time in my life. Nowadays I only do a full shave twice a week (save for the above-mentioned neck-shave) and maintain that sort of scruffy look, but not terribly scruffy.
How many times have we all looked at a fat cop and thought "Geez, I could outrun him....."? Not that I ever would, unless forced into it by some bizarre mistaken-identity movie plot scenario.
The purposes of any regulation governing the police should be maintenance of good order & discipline among the police. Furthering the mission of law enforcement within legal constraints requires police to behave properly more than look alike. Looking alike is a desire of those who confuse the civilian police with the country's military forces.
After the grooming upgrade, work on those jelly bellies.
Transsocial.
I'm just trying to figure out how a cop passes at the firing range with 3" long fingernails.
Let's see your quick-draw.
Jamie, I am here to counteract Anthony
No beard is way more work, on a daily basis. At least in my case (like Anthony, mine is not curly hair) I can get by with a quick electric shave of the unbearded part of my cheek, and of my neck, that takes literally 20 seconds. And if I skip a day, I don't look scruffy because of the presence of the beard, compared to what it would look like if I didn't have a beard and skipped the all over shave.
The trade-off is you have to do a little more time upon occasion to maintain the mustache line, and the neckline, and then a bunch more time getting the beard professionally trimmed once in a while. But that's a trade-off I will gladly make.
Oops, UNlike Anthony, mine is not curly
"I don't know: what's harder to take care of, beard or no beard?"
Facial hair was not allowed when I was in high school. When I graduated, I got a job that didn't allow facial hair either, so I pretty much grew up shaving every day. The longest I've ever gone without shaving is about three weeks and that was enough for me. I shave pretty much every day, I probably don't skip it more than once or twice a year.
I don't know what's harder though- not shaving would save a few minutes in the morning but results in a constant feeling that something's not quite right until the next time I do shave, so I just spend that five minutes and get it done. How much time and trouble is spent dealing with a beard/moustache? I couldn't say.
The beard hides the bruises from being beaten up by the illegal aliens their mayor insists on hosting.
The nine inch nails might give the women cops some way of defending themselves.
I get what they're trying to do, but that no beard rule will take a lot of millennials and older zoomers out of the hiring pool. Then again, millennials are getting a little old to be new beat cops anyway.
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