Easton Council to decide if city police need thick skin more th...

Easton City Council will consider eliminating college requirements for police candidates in hopes of attracting more applicants.

[RonMania]

And you have bad cops with both!!

[WTF]

As long as they are not drunks im cool with it .

[Teahead13]

Just what we need - dumber cops! We should drop any and all requirements so we have even more illiterate law enforcement agents prowling the streets. How about some mildly retarded officers with guns reporting to calls? Sounds like a good decision.

[teabag]

drop a college requirement. that is absurd. in this day and age a bacchelors should be required. if easton has a problem finding decent candidaes don't lower the requirments....that is when you attract more riff raff....you should offer better incentives like better benefit packagess, better retirement plans and more money. that is how you attract beter and more recruits and reduce lawsuit liability. but then again, it is easton. listen to the honchos you people demoted and re-promoted....i am sure most of council only has a high school diploma or ged, so anything equal to that should suffice.

[Teahead13]

teabag wrote:

drop a college requirement. that is absurd. in this day and age a bacchelors should be required. if easton has a problem finding decent candidaes don't lower the requirments....that is when you attract more riff raff....you should offer better incentives like better benefit packagess, better retirement plans and more money. that is how you attract beter and more recruits and reduce lawsuit liability. but then again, it is easton. listen to the honchos you people demoted and re-promoted....i am sure most of council only has a high school diploma or ged, so anything equal to that should suffice.

You know it! They might as well skip the required Act 120 (police academy) as well. As soon as they put in an application, give them a gun and put them on the streets. Easton could always use a few more lawsuits against the police!

[yourmomma]

A college degree will not necessarily make you a good cop. Panto just might have this one right. Amazing.

[comment]

Let's see, computerization, technical equipment, public relations with the community, public speaking, interpretation of which laws to file,

Yes, lets go get some high school dropouts for our police department. The number of applicants doesn't mean anything, the number of highly qualified people you bring into your organization does.

Given what skills sets a modern police officer has to do, I would suggest that there are enough college graduates of public administation, political science, forensics, pre-law, administration of justice, sociology, anthropology and other requiste majors which graduate people with basic skills sets in communications, general computer skills, specific knowledge of legal subjects, etc that modern police officer must have.

You can increase the starting pay to attract these candidates. It doesn't seem that it is such a big deal considering 150 candidates who are on file. Surely, Easton is not going to hire all 150, considering the size of their force is 50. How many hires this year 5? Surely, they can find 3% of college graduates on file who can pass the physical, background check, police academy and other requisite procedures.

It is a mistake to lessen requirements for employment in an economic downturn, you will soon have a bevy of applicants who will apply for the position.

What in anyone's right mind makes an uneducated person any more qualified for the position. In the USMC and US Army, these people are selected to be infantrymen or most expendable, because a General will just throw the next poor SOB into the fire team, squad, or platoon.

Idiotic idea Mayor Sal Panto, it seems like it is "Back to the Future". You have learned nothing with age.

[FOPPres]

Comment, please, move back to the US and become mayor in one of the valley's cities so that you can show everybody how it should be done.

[comment]

Glad to see you back FOPPres. Very understandable given the amount of time committment the young and not so young lads have eaten up of the FOP to keep them out of a pickle.

The last time I was in the Lehigh Valley I met with Air Products and they asked the same question. What would it take to get me to come back? My answer $10 million dollars per year. Considering that this is achievable now at PPL, I may actually be in a position to consider moving back.

However, I am quite happy engaging in the discovery of business and new opportunities throughout East and Central Asia. It is sure beats being worried about economic downturn. Unemployment is under 3% in Seoul and their are over 600,000 unfilled positions in Seoul.

If any of you master's degree holders and college graduates need a job, there is a severe shortage of English speakers to teach academic subject matter and as English teachers in Korea. The average salary is 2.5 to 4.0x the per capital income. Per capita income topped $20,000 US in 2007. Salaries for college graduates are $50,000 to $80,000 per year. There are also plenty of corporate jobs also, but they require English/Korean/Chinese/Japanes e language skills.

While people bitch about Spanish, having two or three languages capability is very valuable. I speak English/German/Spanish/French/ Korean. I am about to endeavor on learning some characters and basic phrases for Chinese.

Either enter the competiton or fade away. I am for making America more competitive in the global landscape. My earning here are repatriated back to the US. Go out and find your dream, even if it is a small town police department, but it does not lessed the requirement that you are educated.

In Korea, 99.2% of Korean's have a high school diploma. The go to school 255 days per year and put in over 12 hours per day. In PA, we graduate 86% of our students, and only 50% in Philadelphia. They go to school 180 days per year for 7 hours. All Korean men are military veterans, in PA less than 10% are military veterans. In Korea, 80% of all men have college education of some sort. In PA, only 23% have a bachelors degree. In Korea, there are currently 500,000 people pursuing graduate degree? In PA, who knows?

Hence, Korean policemen are high school graduate, most likely college graduates, and have served at least 2 years in the Korean Armed Forces. They utilize 100% coverage of the city with video surveillance, have thwarted assassination plots on their Presidents, utilize all forms of modern technology, and are very professional. They are also all black belts in Taekwondo, but most of all nearly all of them speak Korean and English.

Wouldn't it be something if the police forces in the Lehigh Valley were like that. 100% college graduate, military veterans, physically fit with black belts in Taekwondo or other martial art, professional, with ability to speak English and Spanish.

The respect level in the community and the ability of men to do their job professionally would escalate. A policemen's job is quite noble since the profession was established in the early 1800s. What is destroying this esteem is the degradation of its own members to become like the criminals they arrest. When your own break the law, then it undermines the integrity of the system and also the profession. It does not matter if it is law enforcement or a businessperson.

[one up]

This is for comment in Korea. Your post has the ring of "Iam betteer than you" to it. You think you are worth 10 mil. There is no one person, corporate or otherwise that is worth that kind of salary. And your logic is what is making it hard for this country and jobs. We have outsourced so much that there are fewer jobs for our people. And you and your "statistics" are the reason...cheap labor. However, if I am not mistaken, wasn't it just recently that there was a massive recall of toys that had been outsourced to some Asian country for manufacturing, and lead paint was used. You think that 20.000 is OK for some of our people to eb making, but you want 10 mil to come back? Sorry, stay where you ar, this country's economy doesn't need you, can't afford you and certainly our children don't need the likes of cheap labor over there to harm their well being.

[comment]

Per capita incomes in Korea and Japan are both over $20,000 per year.

Per capita income of Allentown is $18,000.

Glad you have so many entrepreneurs in the Lehigh Valley that so many high paying jobs are being created.

Come her and visit and see what it is like. Japan, Korea, China are all trillion dollar economies. People hustle here non-stop and are expected to dedicate thier lives to self improvement.

Commerce is not a closed system, where you just sell to the people in your own town or county. Commerce for thousands of years is global.

There is opportunity for anyone in the world to make hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions. You have to be willing to go out and find where and how for yourself. Commerce is international and you make your own way, there is nothing that says I must go bankrupt so that I can provided YOU with a job.

My earnings are repatriated back to the United States for income and also for capital gains. I too am included in US statistics. The work that I do allows you to have more consumption that you otherwise could have. The work that I do allows others to have higher incomes and a better standard of living that they would otherwise have in their country.

In your own self interest, you would deny the human dignity of a days wage so that you can earn more and over consume more.

Instead of complaining about jobs, go out and create your own jobs for people. This is a world and commerce has no boundaries. The work that I do makes the world better.

The wage levels of China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Kazakstan, Krygyz Republic, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbejian, and many other nations have all increased since European and American companies have engaged in joint ventures, contract manufacturing, or foreign direct investments. Do not denigrate the value of the businessman who creates employment opportunities globally, we rely on the expertise of many Americans and pay high wages. We can not guaratee everyone in the world a job, but we do offer the opportunity for people to work for a market competitive wage. In the countries that I deal in, the wage rates are rising and I can say that wage rates are only a small portion of the decisions to place a location.

It also depends on dependable education, reliability electricty and engergy sources, and also reliable road, port, and other infastructure.

Nearly every world citizen is better off than they were in Post WWII, I can not explain the situation in the Lehigh Valley of why old economy jobs have not been replaced fast enough with new economy jobs,except to say that new economy jobs require higher education. The college and high school graduation rates are very low in Pennsylvania. To me that explains the majority of the lacking in wage growth. An educated society becomes a successful society.

You want to change Pennsylvania, don't sink money into stadiums, or casinos, but into high school education and getting more people to graduate from college. Where there is a talent pool, this is where there will be companies.

Very little of what I do anymore is investment into manufacturing, the majority of what I do now is science and technology investment. Guess who produces more engineeers than any other region of the world? Asia. This is why I am here. I need to see first hand what people are working on and decide do they get capital.

[one up]

So those countries are TRILLION dollar countries, yet by your own admission, the average income for the people that bring in trillions for said countries make an average of 20K? Where then does the rest of it go? And I don't consider 2K more on the average as being so much better. If our corporate money mongers would stop ssending businesses oversseas, perhaps our citizens would fare better. It is of no interest what you send back here monetarily, what is of interest is that you think it necessary to be in a place that uses cheap labor and produces cheap, bad quality goods. Our small children mean more to we parents than how much it might cost to use a QUALITY paint for toys. And also, using young children to produce these inferior toys is less than a stellar endorsement of the work ethics of foreign countries. Your posts all seem to address the issue of how much you make, statistics for your thought process and your willingness to be a part of the corporate world that denigrates this countries work force.

[comment]

What don't you get? The wage rates in Singapore, Korea, and Japan are comprable to US. Korea and Japan have mandatory attendance laws for schools and educate their children 6 days a week with higher graduation rates than USA.

Go through your house and throw out just about everthing you have, espcially all your clothes and walk around naked because more than 90% of worlds textiles are produced in Asia.

There are product's liability issues in the USA and there are issues in products produced anywhere in the world, but one case does not make all products of poor quality, of child labor issues, or of cheap labor.

I guess since you are anti-globalism that all people should get rid of their BMW, Lexus, Honda, Mercedes Benz, Bentleys, VW, Toyotas, Ferrari's because they are all cheap quality, utilize child labor, and are such bad quality products.

Go get an education and the employment opportunities are unlimited. Globalism is not the reason for your own demise. There are many Americans who have the can do spirit and have kept up with the changing economy, but obviously ONE UP is not one of them.

I guess then America should also keep its product in the US and not have trading partners, based on your logic?

[one up]

comment wrote:

What don't you get? The wage rates in Singapore, Korea, and Japan are comprable to US. Korea and Japan have mandatory attendance laws for schools and educate their children 6 days a week with higher graduation rates than USA.
Go through your house and throw out just about everthing you have, espcially all your clothes and walk around naked because more than 90% of worlds textiles are produced in Asia.
There are product's liability issues in the USA and there are issues in products produced anywhere in the world, but one case does not make all products of poor quality, of child labor issues, or of cheap labor.
I guess since you are anti-globalism that all people should get rid of their BMW, Lexus, Honda, Mercedes Benz, Bentleys, VW, Toyotas, Ferrari's because they are all cheap quality, utilize child labor, and are such bad quality products.
Go get an education and the employment opportunities are unlimited. Globalism is not the reason for your own demise. There are many Americans who have the can do spirit and have kept up with the changing economy, but obviously ONE UP is not one of them.
I guess then America should also keep its product in the US and not have trading partners, based on your logic?

My point is that THIS country in general, is outsourcing it's job positions due to the fact that our corporate idiots want to make more money for their pockets, Accordingly, their idealogy is get more for less, which you seem to think is OK. In the process of doing this, they have cut jobs for our people and made jobs for those overseas, which costs less to do. Our companies here are not interested in our own, just in the end, how much more they have in their pockets
(i.e. the oil companies that make a profit of 40 bil and just keep raising the prices to the consumer). You seem to think that because they go to school 6 days aweek it is OK for us to lose our workforce to those that can make goods cheaper. The recall on toys was only an example of what cheap gets us. There have been recalls on cars and other goods that are made overseas, so how safe is cheap?

[one up]

comment wrote:

What don't you get? The wage rates in Singapore, Korea, and Japan are comprable to US. Korea and Japan have mandatory attendance laws for schools and educate their children 6 days a week with higher graduation rates than USA.
Go through your house and throw out just about everthing you have, espcially all your clothes and walk around naked because more than 90% of worlds textiles are produced in Asia.
There are product's liability issues in the USA and there are issues in products produced anywhere in the world, but one case does not make all products of poor quality, of child labor issues, or of cheap labor.
I guess since you are anti-globalism that all people should get rid of their BMW, Lexus, Honda, Mercedes Benz, Bentleys, VW, Toyotas, Ferrari's because they are all cheap quality, utilize child labor, and are such bad quality products.
Go get an education and the employment opportunities are unlimited. Globalism is not the reason for your own demise. There are many Americans who have the can do spirit and have kept up with the changing economy, but obviously ONE UP is not one of them.
I guess then America should also keep its product in the US and not have trading partners, based on your logic?

And by the way, exactly WHAT does any of this have to do with the EPD? That is what this thread was all about, not once again, how much you make in salary and your glowing statements on why workiing in Asia is so much better than here. I reiterate, if THAT is how you feel, then stay where you are as you and your company have shown that we Americans mean nothing to corporate.