The New York City Police Department’s dance team has decided to burn off some of the stress of the job by dancing together. They recently performed live for a local news station, and there are so many angles to the story that I don’t even know where to begin.
I’ll just give you a flavor for how it looks and then we can talk about the controversy that ensued:
There are a lot of thoughts about this, and these officers started taking a lot of hits for it. Some people thought they should be out policing. Some people, like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), thought that we’re spending too much money on cops. She is outraged over this, meanwhile, she is responsible for defunding the police in the first place. Look in the mirror, if you want to know the source of this problem.
The NYPD responded by basically saying that they do this on their own time. It’s their form of stress relief. No program was cut to fund this. It’s their own private project.
I’m all for exercise and burning off stress, but my problem with it is some of these women look very out of shape. It plays right into a pre-existing problem with the police force, not just in New York City but in many cities across America post-George Floyd. We cannot get basically fit people to want to join the police force.
It just so happens that I recently had an NYPD officer pull me aside before this video emerged to say that they are experiencing a massive problem with overweight and, in some cases, obese cops. It is particularly true of women, but it can go both ways. They can’t even chase after the criminals they’re trying to arrest. We have lowered the standards so much that we’re actually missing arrests and bad guys.
After he told me this, I decided to look into it more and, sure enough, it’s true. Amid a wave of retirements in 2022, the NYPD removed a faux six-foot wall inside the police academy gym and replaced it with a chain link fence (below).
Hell, even I could climb that. You stick your foot in the hole. We can all get over that. Come on. That’s not the same. This is ridiculous.
They also scrapped the timed one and a half-mile run for new recruits, saying they hoped more women would make the cut. Sure enough, they did. The NYPD’s explanation was no cop on patrol ever has to run a mile and a half.
So, my problem is: Dance all you want, but would you please get in shape. You shouldn’t have been admitted to the police department if you can’t fit into the standard uniform and perform basic fitness tests. Male or female, this is a problem and it’s not politically incorrect to talk about it.
We found video out of Chicago where there were four female police officers trying to arrest one man. Even though they outnumbered him, he got away. He flicked them off with very little trouble and ran off. There are some women who are just crushers. They are strong and tough, and I’m sure they could do the job better than some out-of-shape men. But it seems to be going the other way in too many instances.
I say this humbly, my fellow women. You may not know this about me, but I did Marine training for a weekend at Camp Lejeune for a story when I was at NBC. As you watch below, I could not get over the wall. It was so hard, but I am a podcaster, a journalist, and somebody who sits around all day. I’m not trying to arrest people.
Ladies, in summary, continue getting in shape. I think we should bring back the wall, I think we should bring back the run, and I actually think we should be adding a few more requirements. We should be paying our cops better, giving them better benefits, and lifting them up rhetorically and in spirit so that they can go out there and do the job that we need them to do instead of people like AOC ripping them at every turn.
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis interview by tuning in to episode 729 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.