Gunblast.com Stupidity

What are you trying to say?
The San Francisco PD has done exactly that and the primarily Hispanic/Latino and Asian recruits are indeed physically more diminutive on average.

I found no ethnically pejorative tone or content in Mr. Quinn's article. Perhaps you should turn your sensitivity meter down a bit.

Good choice on the 10mm.

Sounds like a standard op-ed. What I took from this is his opinnion that some police forces are looking for a demographic that fits the populous. Whats wrong with having small hands?

I don't know why females or minorities would be seen as "touchy-feely". I know I don't exactly expect a hug from a female cop. Oh well, some people just throw totally unnecessary nonsense out there, even when it disrupts the flow of a paragraph.

have been actively recruiting women and minorities into their ranks, perhaps to achieve a more touchy-feely police force

Click to expand...

I took it to mean that the police can communicate better and make the public more "at ease" with LEOs. If there's a domestic disturbance, they'll need one or two good sized MEN to handle an out-of-control man but the woman might possibly feel better about talking to another woman.

These smaller new recruits usually come equipped with smaller hands.

Click to expand...

Exactly what he means......... you'll need a smaller-framed weapon for those LEOs with smaller hands.

Why read more into this than GunBlast is saying?

why cant some people handle the truth? if you have small hands and arent as muscle bound as "hans the horseshoe maker" carry a framing hammer, and not a 5 pound chunk of steel on a hardwood stick?

If you look closely at the amount of small sized police officers it comes in right with the trend of getting rid of 357 mag revovlers as standard issue. That was on the basis of that the new recruits couldnt handle lots of shooting with the lightest and highest velocity bullets.

Anyone who thinks that the guy who wrote that isn't racist as hell has got another thing coming. That was clearly written by someone with an agenda.

Much ado about nothing.

Speaking as a 6ft 300 LB. minority officer I love that comment.

Jeez. People are babies. Im surprised your not talking about suing him yet....

What was his agenda, exactly? They should be using bigger guns or bigger people?

If that has an agenda/is stereotypical, what about the news saying "americans are fat"?

How is that diffrent then saying, for example, Asians are small? Is one stereotypical, and one not? or is one just more ok then the other?

Aside from the touchy-feely comment, he's actually got it right. Working to make a police force representative of the populous it serves has been documented.

Although, ironically, all he really did was call "white people" big-handed.

Anyone who thinks that the guy who wrote that isn't racist as hell has got another thing coming. That was clearly written by someone with an agenda.

Click to expand...

Ummm... What? We're hardly the most PC people around here, so I'd lay off the bleeding heart act unless you can point out where he said anything derogatory about said minorities.

I've been reading the Gunblast on and off, and haven't read anything racist.

It is true that your average person of Asian, Hispanic, or various island descents will be smaller than your average white man. Or black man, for that example.

And, as I've seen, it is true that police departments have been more active in recruiting more women and 'minorities' than your average old-fashioned white officer, to 1) be more PC around the job and 2) in places like here in Florida, the minorities aren't.

Black guys are less likely to get ambushed in the worse neighborhoods. Your average white Floridian doesn't know Spanish, and your average guy with Puerto Rican or Cuban parents does, and that's a plus for the job here.

Extra points to having fewer muggers and unlicensed drivers (as an example) get off the hook because they didn't understand their rights as read by Jimbo and Earl, when Officer Martinez (I actually knew him, put down your whistle) cuffes them instead. And, every time I've ever seen a white officer down here saying anything to a black or hispanic guy, the the first thing out of the thug's mouth is "Man, you racist!" Black and hispanic cops stop the issue of bogus race-related complaints.

I weighed 130 pounds last time I checked myself--clothed, booted and fed. I have a hard time holding double-stack pistols in anything larger than .40, most of the time, and while I don't want to be a cop, I have no doubt I could physically do it if I got drafted into it for some reason. I'm all for making police pistols that fit in more hands of any gender or color, because I'd happily back anyone for the job that can do it well.

I do not take the author's comments in a bad way.

I can shoot bigger guns and I am only 5' 3" tall - no big hands here.

I can't rack the slide on MANY semi automatic pistols no matter HOW I try to do this. It depends on the pistol. It is due to my strength or LACK of it from an old injury, some age, arthritis, healed broken bones, weakness, nerve damage with my left arm/hand/fingers.

I sure could NOT physically try to stop a fight between two people without using a GUN or having a "partner" or calling for "back up" to do this. Disclaimer: I have never been in a physical fight in my life... only debates or verbal ones that never led to anything 'physical'.

I was pretty strong as a younger lady and could do some 'man's work' around our house and when we built it too. I could swim like a fish and walk fast... almost a run. I could push and move things but I was NEVER a strong 'lifter' - the most would be 25 to 50 pounds of dry dog food. I have been known to do 'man's work' because I had to and we did not always HIRE help in our lives. We worked as a team and we had our best male friend help us too. Vice versa - thank goodness for a fellow Veteran and best friend since my late husband was 7 years old. He always asked us for help too. That is how we lived our lives. Later on, I had to do more or most - 98% of the outside work. No chain saw for me - I tried it and said, "Thanks but NO thanks!" I decided to use a saws all and hand tools instead for some jobs. If a chain saw had to be used - it was the man's JOB to do.

If someone can do the job @ any size - more power to him or her. If they want everything compromised and standards LOWERED due to any reason especially in strength factors - that is wrong in my NOT so humble opinion. I know that is not a popular thing to say but so be it. Your partner's LIFE in the military, in police work, in FD/EMT work, in moving van work, etc. may be compromised or cause an injury to THEM or YOU.

Touchy feeling? Well, I tend to be demonstrative towards some (Handful of friends and loved ones.) people but NOT to all of them... never in a professional capacity.

If I had to pick a partner or back up... I would want someone taller, stronger and/or bigger than me. My late husband was tall and slender but strong. My husband is tall, bigger and strong. Age is another factor in determining all of these things. Most of the recruits in ANY profession are younger people too. Some younger adults are not used to physical work and never had chores or much 'outside play'. Sometimes older people can outwork them in physical and emotional work too. Grin. It depends on the individual too.

Catherine

I have read Gunblast on and off over the years too. I am not a regular reader as I used to be when it comes to TONS of gun boards.

I LIKE the author and his opinions/stories.

Catherine

Years ago, to be a PA State Policeman you had to be at least 6ft and 180lb. Most were far larger men. And, this formula worked well for decades. Bar fight? Send in ONE Trooper. Problem solved without use of firearms.

The current crop of less than large Troopers need to be more reliant on weapons when confronted with unruly folks. I'm not seeing the advantage here...

I remember watching an episode of C.O.P.S in which two female officers (Pittsburg Pa.) got called to a disturbance in a bar. they tried to put a guy in handcuffs and he just stood at the pool table W/ his hands clasped, they couldn't budge him. A male patron of the bar had to move his hands into position so the cops could cuff him.

The ignorance speaks for itself.

Click to expand...

I'll disagree.

Quinn speaks with the perspective of years and physical size. His observations are just that, observations. If those observations upset you, think about why the truth is offensive to so many people. Mostly it is because they want the truth to be different.

I remember watching an episode of C.O.P.S in which to female officers got called to a disturbance in a bar. they tried to put a guy in handcuffs and he just stood at the pool table W/ his hands clasped, they couldn't budge him.

Click to expand...

I'm guessing this was before they all had tasers. I've seen people get tased for less than that by both male and female cops.

I'm guessing this was before they all had tasers.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure, dude's wife was going bananas on the cops every time they turned their back on her she'd jump on them ( until two male patrons picked her up) They may have had tasers and chose not to use them in front all those people because they were all alone & didn't know how the people would react.

People thinking women and smaller guns is a sexist comment.....probably have difficulty understanding why women don't play in the NFL. It's a fact of life, men & women are different.

I'm not sure, dude's wife was going bananas on the cops every time they turned their back on her she'd jump on them ( until two male patrons picked her up) They may have had tasers and chose not to use them in front all those people because they were all alone & didn't know how the people would react.

Click to expand...

That situation is what tasers are made for. I can't see how that would have put them in any danger from the patrons. Most bystanders aren't going to want to get tased themselves. One of the troublemaking pair could have definitely become more dangerous if they couldn't subdue them both at the same time, though. It sounds like a situation that needed more than two cops anyways.


I'm not sure why everyone seems to be focusing on the part about women being smaller/having smaller hands. Most women and many minorities are smaller than the average white guy. Duh. But that point could have been made just fine without speculating that the recruitment of these smaller officers was about being "touchy feely" (it was more likely due to a call for more cops on the street and an effort to make them more representative of their communities). When someone has a gun and handcuffs and can put you in a cage, they are anything but "touchy feely." And from everything I've heard, cops were generally a lot more friendly 50 years ago than they are now. I don't think it's evidence of some blatant bigoted agenda, but it does seem like kind of an ignorant thing to put in there.

I know I don't exactly expect a hug from a female cop.

Click to expand...

Ya know, it couldn't hurt. Every now and then you just want a blue to give you a nice big hug.

Quinn is saying, essentially, this: Whereas before they wanted big dudes to be wearing badges, they now opened their doors to individuals of other sizes as they placed the necessity of employing a diverse demographic instead of their usual selection process based on physical stature.

He isn't becrying the evils of employing minorities or women, what he is attempting to explain is the increase in demand for duty pistols aimed for smaller individuals. He gives a conjecture.

You can't crucify a fellow for a conjecture. Especially when that conjecture is free of value judgments.

I'm guessing this was before tasers.

Yeah that episode with the two female cops was before tasers. I believe they still drove the big old square Crown Vics.

Bruce Lee was smaller than your average white guy too.

JaxNovice said:

police forces at all levels of government have been actively recruiting women and minorities into their ranks, perhaps to achieve a more touchy-feely police force, I don’t know

Click to expand...

This statement is clearly saying three related things:

1) This change was unnecessary. Why? Because:
2) Women and minorities are not the first choice for the job. Why? Because:
3) Women and minorities do not make as good police officers.

Whatever points he is making about firearms may indeed be perfectly valid - yeah, women tend to be smaller than men - I think everyone knows that. But everybody *doesn't* know (because it isn't true) that women/minorities tend to make worse police officers than white men.

If the author didn't mean to say those things, he could easily have left out the part that I bolded and nobody would have a problem with it. "Touchy-feely" clearly has negative connotations, though, especially when you're referring to a profession that has typically been defined by masculinity and strength.

I think that's all the OP was saying.