I was at the local police station reporting my stolen bike, when I spotted an article about reverse discrimination in a correctional officers' magazine. Puh-lease. Out town is 1/2 Black and Spanish yet their are only 3 Black officers on the force.
The article was about reverse discrimination in Teaneck, NJ. In New Jersey, the current list of police officers were denied promotions because the police exam was ruled biased by the US justice department. One Black officer had his promotion delayed, so the article screamed "Reverse Discrimination!" Puh-lease.
The basis for the delay was a ruling by the justice department that the police promotion exam had a "disparate impact," on minorities. Basically, the results of the exam show Whites are favored over Blacks and other minorities. Minorities have long been discriminated against in New Jersey law enforcement.
One of the great things about a blog is you can do original research and make a difference.
To evaluate the claims of bias, we reviewed several exam preparation test books for the police officers and Sargent exams. All the books were obtained from the local library. The prep books give a good idea of what is required to pass the exam for a police officer or promotion.Specifically, used:
Based on the content of the books, here is what to expect on the police officers exam:
McGraw-Hill and Barron's Memorization and memory testing Map reading, Visualization and Spatial Orientation Grammar, writing, sentence structure and spelling. Filling out forms and reports. Reading comprehension Some basic math Information processing such as deductive reasoning Legal definitions and police procedures
The sargent's exam include additional topics:
Management Legal procedures Laws and statues
What's missing ? Common sense, real crime prevention strategies and social work. Yes, crime prevention is social work.
We agree with the court that the exams are biased toward testing taking and answer memorization. They do not full reflect true police work. We understand and appreciate the work of the exam creators. They have a difficult job with lots of interest group and cultural pressure. How do you put on a written test questions that distill years of police work (Sargents exam) or basic police skills into a written, multiple choice exam ?
How to you test for aptitude, learning ability, community relations skills, and common sense and social welfare. An almost impossible job. So any test devised is flawed from jump. Yet, like education, we must test. We must have some benchmark for comparison. We do support testing as part of a comprehensive candidate evaluation portfolio. We also support the recognition a point in time test is a flawed measure
Our proposal is for more realistic tests, work evaluations, and observations that de-emphasizes memorization, reading and writing and rewards crime prevention, bravery, community relations and police skills.
Police work is the dark side of social work. They catch all the people who choose not to follow social norms. Police work is also about community building. Police work is about crime prevention. None of those principles are emphasized in the exam.
The exam is about following orders, filling out forms correctly, memorizing the correct answer. There is a large section on geographical navigation.
The real life exam is about applying the principals of constitution law and why the rulings were made, handling difficult situations without resorting to force, community relations, acculturation, [speaking Spanish in a Spanish community], crime victim empathy and preventing crime. Again none of these topics appear on the test.
The tests are a good start, but only a beginning. It is time to consider the limits and biases of the test in considering the results. It is time to revise the test to measure what really matter for police especially police in Black and minority communities.
The US Census Bureau has realeased it's Small Area Income and Poverty survey. 653 counties saw a significant increase in poverty for children 5 to 17; 8 saw a decrease.
The Evil Black Economist support the Occupy Movement !!! Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Oakland, Occupy the Hood and all the other Occupy's.
Occupy has successfully shifted the debate from lowering the debt to inequality in the United States. They have people asking the right question: what sort of society do we want to live in ?
Many of us have no problem with some of the huge inequities in the US. We are used to it. Black memories of racial oppression are still fresh. My dad talks about having to sit in segregated movie theaters in Trenton, NJ as a kid. So we come from a different starting place than many of the young White kids in the occupy movement. But we have a lot in common. Now there is a lot more equality: Equality of misery. Everyone is feeling the Black pain. Which is good for the country and for Black people and other minorities.
I am asked constantly about why there are so few minorities at the occupy rallies. The best answer I have is that it is not our fight or we think it is not our fight. Unemployment and economic problems have been huge in the Black community since Slavery, yet no one cared before. So the average Black person thinks: "Hmmm, it seems like only when white kids are affected is it worth protesting."
Near as I can figure there are a couple of other reasons as well: We have better things to do with our [economic] time, the "vibe" of the protest has not been particularly familiar to Blacks [camping out] and the chances of success look small[you can't fight Mr. Charlie].
Given all that, in our gut we still support what they are trying to do. Black people do support the Occupy movements. We frequently stand on the side of right. It is our nature. And anything that will increase economic and social justice has to be a good thing.
We stand on the side of social justice that the Occupy movements embody. We support Occupy !!!
The Evil Black Economist supports a living wage and the "Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act" (living wage bill) currently being debated by the NY City Council. Living wage bills are an obvious way to put more money in the hands of low wage workers. San Francisco, CA and Santa Fe, NM have enacted living wage bills.
Living wage bills have little proven effect on overall employment level: up or down. Jobs cannot change location easily nor change their experience or education requirements. Pretty much the same condition holds true for people. A skilled carpenter or electrician cannot work remotely. Companies make up the extra cost though small price increases and increased productivity.
New York city has further qualified the wage requirement such that only companies receiving subsidies from the government must pay the wage. So the tax people pay would be used to generate better jobs.
A living wage is also a way to reduce income inequality. Occupy Wall Street has made reducing income inequality a center piece of their agenda.
You can read the website of Livingwagenyc.org to get the latest news.
This country spends way too much on defense. I know we get alot of jobs and we killed Osama, but there is a better way to spend the money and still get jobs. Rather than waste it on the beltway security consultants, we should be investing in clean energy, education and innovation.
So here is the nice part, if you look at the $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts about $500 million come from national security and military operations. I don't know who put together the cuts, but they knew what they were doing, so it looks "Check!" and "Mate" by the Obama team. Well thank goodness for the country. Now no gloating.
In economics, we have great difficulty conducting pure experiments. We simply cannot change many important variable. Instead, we have to think about a particular circumstance and try and use our models to describe what the world would look like.
One of my favorite is: What would the US look like if everyone who wanted a job could find one ?
What is this really means is: What if the unemployment rate dropped to the natural turnover rate (about 3%), the economy perfectly matched the skills of the people and the local job market matched the demand for jobs. There is no immigration or migration.
How to track consumer spending and the retail industry.
1. Increase in Volume, Store visits, website hits 2. Price increases 3. Increase in Revenue 4. High end sales / Low end sales ratio 5. Total US advertising expenditure 6. Store sales / deals / promotion 7. US Personal Consumption Expenditure 8. Conference board's Consumer Confidence index
I just realized when writing I need some moral standards and guiding principals that we black people, as economic actors, should aspire to achieve. You cannot tell someone: "No, don't do that", without offering an alternative.
The number one goal for black people is the largest amount of happinesss for the most black people. On a personal level this means: above average happiness as measured by indicators. This include health, friends and family, material wealth and human development.
There is also a larger societal goal of contributing to the black community, society, and making society better for others.
Health Friends and familiy Material Wealth
Absolute Safe home or Apartment Car or Bicycle TV, Oven, Refridgerator 2 week of clothes
Relative Black people should be no less than 15% below the average unemployment rate, income and home value.
Human Development
80% post high school education rate (college, trade school)
societal goals Join one black organization Attend church volunteer 10 times a year Vote or participate in school events
