Neither protecting or serving are actual job requirements.

Cops with guns don’t have to run… 🤷‍♂️

Reminds me of my favorite Simpson’s quote.

Marge (to Bart): “Your father wanted to be a police officer but they said he was too heavy.”

Homer: “No the army said I was too heavy, the police said I was too dumb.”

How is someone that gets out of breath eating a donut going to protect and serve anyone?

They don’t serve anyone

I think once you pass the physical strength/endurance exam to become a cop, you don’t have to take any to remain one. I definitely think that should change, though. Make them pass once a year to retain their job.

Never met anyone who was too fat to shoot minorities.

Many departments don’t require physical tests once hired.

Most of the work cops do is domestic disturbance calls and traffic stops. There’s no reason to be physically fit for either of those jobs. Also, most people see the day shift and in nicer neighborhoods; again there’s really no need for physicality. Getting on day shift and good area means you’ve been on the police a while and “earned it” (or you have some clout), so usually olderish cops.

The young jacked mfers usually are on the night shift and in rougher neighborhoods.

Additionally, a bullet resistant vest and all the gear will make you look bigger/fatter than you really are.

So it’s kind of a combo of all that.

Also, ACAB

to protect and serve is not their job.

Heard from a local cop that it had something to do with the union. If the department wants to implement a standard the union would require something or other. Something about an incentive? I didn’t get the whole picture obviously. I know police need unions in case somebody sues them but does seem kind of dumb that it’s so difficult to enforce a physical standard.

Why are they also so clearly low iq, and hyper violent?
and why are they paid so well?

Non joke answer: A bunch of reasons. Many precincts are understaffed, so they need all the hands they can get. The police union is huge and makes it extremely difficult to fire even the most homer-simpsonian individuals. Many of the hugely obese cops are assigned to “light duty” meaning the most exertion they face is paperwork, manning the public information desk and or doing things like serving writs (in some cases you’re allowed to wear the uniformn even if you’re not a bonded officer, which is absurd). Additionally, fitness requirements are actually fairly rare across the whole spectrum of law enforcement - It’s surprisingly rare to see them for any positions besides uniformed patrol officer, even detectives or etc. aren’t always required to pass them - and even when you do, they’re usually pathetically easy to pass.

From what I’ve seen, they don’t even learn about the law and often break the law by illegal detainment, searches and confiscation. Cops who served for over 20 years but don’t know people their rights. They often get minimal training while having to serve alone where everyone carries a gun. That’s asking for problems. And now cops in the US are militarized with heavy combat gear, while the majority is white and racist. So obesity is the least of the problems with US police.

In my part of the world, cops are near on top of the food chain in any town and city, sometimes literally getting a free pass as long as they do something for a politician, a celebrity, or a business personality. So some of them, especially senior officers, do eventually get obese because not only they get to choose what duties they want to carry out, but also either they have three full square meals plus two snacks a day, or maybe a drinking party two to four times a month.

Of course they – the Philippine National Police – are a government agency, but also they’re a fraternity, the so-called “Brotherhood”: “you scratch my back as long as I scratch yours”.

Kind of an over simplification. Yeah, cops should ideally be fit-ish but even an obese person with a gun or a tazer can protect people, maybe not as well but still, and that doesn’t take into account the fact that a lot of cops are not actually on the streets but rather in an office doing paperwork etc. The problems are:

• There are maybe not enough cops that are fit for actual fights?
• Cops are ridiculously undertrained and unfiltered, giving us all if these assholes that really just like power.

to give an answer to a rhetorical question: because firing people based on weight is a can of worms being opened. while it’s still technically not illegal to fire someone because their weight makes them “unfit,” the ada can be invoked if said obesity is caused by a disorder (e.g., type 1 diabetes). this ignores the fact that it’s hard to prove that someone would be unfit just for their weight; it just opens up employers to lawsuits. a simpler way to think about it would be to ask yourself if the guy handing out speeding tickets is “unfit for duty” solely because he’s obese.