Agreed on both points. Re: the 2nd part of your post....that was kinda what I wanted to talk about here, which of course was briefly sidetracked....but how could someone hire this guy? Clearly, he isn't cut out for a LE job. I guess in this case, we could thank daddy for that one.
Well, the reality is that I wouldn't be at all suprised if his father did clear the way...
But it's hard for me to judge from the brief details in the article.
He did crappy in college... Well, I know a school where it's not at all uncommon for people to have stellar GPAs their first year because they're more than a little distracted with the other stuff they're dealing with, and sometimes, what the corporals think of your shoe shine seems more important than a test... Bad grades reflect work attitude at school, and may indicate failing to learn the material. Or just testing badly. Or a learning disorder. But they aren't that big a deal, because the stuff you need to know is taught in the academy.
His academy performance is a bigger concern, and the irony that he did best in the DUI stuff is hard to miss... There are red flags there, and it really doesn't help that he barely met the training requirements in the time alotted -- but he did meet them. Like the joke about med school, what do you call the guy who graduated last in the police academy? Officer.
According to the article, as I recall, he failed to score high enough on two written tests as an applicant. That's kind of scary, because most of the police aptitude exams are pretty easy to pass... They're basically a tool to figure out if the person's got a little bit of judgement, has the basic reading comprehension, writing and math skills needed, and shows potential to learn what they need to learn. He failed a physical ability test; it doesn't say why. Maybe he tripped and lost too much time on run, or was sick that day... That doesn't have much to do with this particular incident.
The psych eval, as reported, is pretty typical for a young applicant. Especially in this age of helicopter parents and prolonged adolescence.
It absolutely seems that there were some serious problems in how the PD handled the incident. But not all of that was the PD's fault; if he refused, on lawyer's advice, to take the test... he refused.
