Anne Kirkpatrick

ANNE Kirkpatrick was sworn in last fall as as New Orleans police chief. She apparently is a skilled and industrious administrator with a long resume and a reputation as as “reformer.”

But whenever I see a woman in a police uniform, especially in the role of police chief, I see a person in costume. Nothing more. The 64-year-old Kirkpatrick in appearance, if you can disregard the uniform, reminds me of the older women who staff the annual herb sale nearby. (You can see her in action here and here.) Doesn’t New Orleans have some tough neighborhoods? If you were head of a criminal gang would she inspire fear? But then as a female mayor once put it, police departments are repulsive when they have a “toxic, macho culture.”

To me, a woman police chief is a case of social transgenderism and make-believe. Someday the world will be filled with enlightened people who think otherwise, who think it’s normal for women to command what is essentially a military operation in a crime-ridden city, but in the meantime, sick reactionaries like me exist.

A police officer, clearly of the “toxic, macho culture” type, once wrote to me:

Female sensibilities being applied to police work is the biggest reason that criminals are not scared of the police anymore. There should be a feeling among the criminal element that they might be physically hurt if they want to cross a certain line or if they want to fight a police officer. That feeling is largely absent now, due to misguided liberal policies and female sentimentality guiding policy.

That was back in 2010. Today, there are 300 women police chiefs and many thousands in the ranks.

Kirkpatrick was previously police chief of Oakland, California for some two-and-a-half years.

In addition to executive leadership experience, Kirkpatrick is a National Instructor for the FBI’s Law Enforcement Executive Association’s Leadership Training Program, where she instructs on topics including, but not limited to, Bias and Diversity, Emotional Intelligence and Leading Generations. (Source)

“Emotional Intelligence?” Not the kind of expertise you expect in a police chief. It’s the kind of expertise you expect in a government nanny.

Jeff Culbreath at What’s Wrong with the World also viewed the phenomenon in a negative light:

A female police chief is uniquely perverse because those whom she will be leading (police officers) and those whom she will be coercing (criminals) are predominantly male. Her position is one of wielding power and authority specifically over men. Tell me, is it healthy for any woman to aspire to this? Does it not indicate some deep spiritual and psychological problems?

Certain kinds of work, too, require male cohesiveness to be effective. This is especially true of physically or mentally intense work in which the stakes are very high. The presence of a woman changes the whole dynamic. The psychological and sexual tensions of a mixed group are entirely counterproductive in such circumstances.

Men also respond much, much better to male authority. As do women, for that matter. Even those who give lip service to feminism bristle under female authority when it is actually exercised. And because it is so unnatural, women in authority often feel like they have something to prove, thus distorting their judgments. A chief of police needs the respect of his officers and the men of the community. A female chief – despite the “gender neutral” attitudes most men will express when asked – just isn’t going to get it.

William H. Parker was a police chief in Los Angeles in the 1960s. He once said that a police is “living, physical symbol of authority.”

He wrote other things that would be unacceptable today:

It was a tragedy when the mothers of America went out of the home and became wage-earners. Many of them had to do it. But I believe that raising a family is a full-time job.

In his opinion, changes in domestic life have led to more crime. The woman police chief, instead of a living symbol of authority, is a living symbol of a collapse in authority. Certainly, the rise of women in the ranks has not brought about an overall decrease in crime. Violent crime rates in the U.S. are about double what they were in the 1960’s, though not as high as they were in the 1980s. (Source)  Obviously, most working women do not produce criminal children.

There’s something more. Women leading men in a traditionally male field leads to a depletion of the mysterious attraction and complementarity of the sexes. In ways we can’t pinpoint, it drains society of the energy to perpetuate itself. Certainly it does not inspire men to do the dirty work and claim some humble honor. Nor does it inspire women to embrace femininity and all its obligations.

As police chief in Oakland, Kirkpatrick once spoke of her desire for “transformation:”

“Reform is where we have policies and procedures and we direct behavior,” she said. “I am more interested in transformation. It’s transformation I have a real heart for. Reform is part of transformation.”

The woman police chief — she is there to be a change agent. She’s there for the express purpose of emasculating. She is more mother than father and will make sure those “racist” cops are a thing of the past.

I’m sure Anne Kirkpatrick is talented and competent. Thousands of hard-working police women deserve credit. But I lament the day when women like Kirkpatrick spent their later years commanding important community organizations, holding down the home front or perhaps even baking cookies for a multitude of grandchildren.

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