New Jersey Must Dumb Down Police Exams to Promote More Non-Whites

Under federal-state settlement a new exam would have to be created.

The civil service test for selecting sergeants in New Jersey municipal and county police departments discriminates against black and Hispanics applicants and government officials must create a new one, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Monday.

If a settlement that includes the finding is approved by a federal judge, the state will also be required to pay $1 million in back pay to black and Hispanic officers who the U.S. Civil Rights Division declares were harmed by the promotion process. The officers may also be given priority for the next openings for sergeants.

According to the settlement, the use of the written exam prevented at least 48 more black candidates and 20 more Hispanics from becoming sergeants, The Star-Ledger reported.

“Police officers, whose daily responsibilities include protecting the public and ensuring the safety of others, have the right to be free from discrimination on the basis of race or national origin on the job,” Thomas Perez, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Civil Rights Division, told the Star-Ledger. “The Department of Justice will challenge discrimination in employment on the basis of race or national origin, whether that discrimination is intentional or the result of promotional practices that have discriminatory impact.”

The state did not admit any liability in reaching a settlement.

A Department of Justice lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Newark charged the written civil service test required for police officers to advance to sergeant was discriminatory.

Federal officials charged the examination was not useful in finding the best candidates for the job and led to disqualifications for a disproportionate number of black and Hispanic applicants, the Star-Ledger reported. When the lawsuit was filed last year, the Department of Justice maintained that at least 120 New Jersey municipal and county police departments used the discriminatory system from 2000 through 2008.

During that time period, 89 percent of white candidates who took the test passed, compared with 73 percent of African-American candidates and 77 percent of Hispanic candidates, the Star-Ledger reported. If the settlement is approved, police departments would have to stop administering the exam

NOTE: Can whites in New Jersey sue for having to take a more difficult exam than black or hispanic candidates? Was the original test discriminatory against whites?

Source: Newsroom Jersey

Category: American Voice, Establishment News

Comments (11)

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  1. JamesinUSA says:

    The effects of dumbing down testing all across our society, whether it's in education, the military,Civil Service or in the private sector, will be to eventually reduce our nation to third world status.

  2. clarityrocks says:

    Tests are not suppose to be discriminatory. They are a measure of the quality, performance, or reliability or your abilities.

    Current vocational employment ask that you demonstrate your knowledge. Many folks can memorize information but only a few that can demonstrate actual meaningful knowledge.

    • 56454 says:

      That is a form of discrimination.

      You are discriminating against people based on their ability to preform.

      Discrimination is a tool, and thus a verb. You using it as a noun shows how little you understand about actual meaningful knowledge.

      • American3P says:

        Discrimination Law and Legal Definitions defines discrimination as:

        “Discrimination refers to the treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit.”

        Also, it is used as a noun.

      • American3P says:

        Discrimination Law and Legal Definitions defines discrimination as:

        “Discrimination refers to the treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit.”

        Also, it is used as a noun.

      • American3P says:

        "Discrimination is a tool, and thus a verb."? Huh? You sound like a real tool!

    • American3P says:

      However, these qualifications are being tossed in order to promote more non-whites. In other words, if you are non-white you need a leg up!

      After years of dumbing down education we now have to dumb down the tests.

  3. kumaric says:

    Aren't tests supposed to be discriminatory? They discriminate between people who study and apply themselves and can pass the test, and those who don't or can't. The whole point of a test is to get the best qualified and smartest people and weed out those of lesser ability.

  4. BridieMurphy says:

    Race Based Math? The “new” math was formulated because the National Council of Teachers of Math (NCTM) whose president at the time, a black man, said “non-white children can not do math with the same facility as white-Anglo males.” (Mr. Obama has also express this opinion.) Because the liberal racists actually believed this, the educrats in Washington and the NCTM pushed calculators on elementary school kids in the inner city to elevate math scores. The NCTM used its federal connections to get new math in all the schools via the new state and federal “faux” standards which are all now based on “new math,” practices. Now we forcing all the children to be dumbed down, and we have a generation of kids, black and white, who can’t do simple math facts.
    Race to the Top, is in reality, a millstone tied around the necks of all our kids in a Race to the Bottom.

  5. American3P says:

    If the test adversely affects and excludes any protected racial group then that test is deemed unfair and discriminatory. So the test has to be dumbed down. Therefore, other protected groups should also be included. How about the handicapped? How about schizophrenics? Right?

    And can whites now sue for being required to take a more difficult test? What about using "proportional qualifications" based on the percentage of the population? If 70% of the population are white Americans, 7 out of 10 members of the police force in question should be white. 1 should be black, 1 should be hispanic, with 1 position remaining.

  6. Crystal says:

    This doesn't make sense to me. Has this exam always been administered?

    If so, is the DOJ saying that because nonwhites don’t do as well as Whites that the exam is discriminatory? An exam that has always been used to qualify candidates for the responsible position of sergeant?

    Thomas Perez, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Civil Rights Division, stated ‘The Department of Justice will challenge discrimination in employment on the basis of race or national origin, whether that discrimination is intentional or the result of promotional practices that have discriminatory impact.’

    Discriminatory impact? Does this mean when nonwhites don’t do as well as Whites that the exams will have to be dumbed down or eliminated?

    It seems to me that our future police officers and troopers will be of lower quality. We are in big trouble!