Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

October 16, 2008

As police departments expand, recruitment standards for police appear to be slipping. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently reported: ?More than one-third of recent Atlanta Police Academy graduates have been arrested or cited for a crime?. The arrests ranged from minor offenses such as shoplifting to violent charges including assault.?

The situation in Atlanta is somewhat exceptional, since one-third of recently graduated police cadets in that city ?had been rejected by other law enforcement agencies?.?

In defense of his department, Atlanta Police Lt. Elder Dancy asserts: ?I don?t think you?ll find any departments who hire only applicants with squeaky-clean records.?

Moral paragons are always in short supply, of course. But there is a significant difference between one police recruit whose record contains the occasional traffic citation, and another whose record includes crimes against persons and property.

It makes little sense to give guns and badges to the kind of people from whom the police are supposed to protect the public.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.