Confirming the stereotype

This is absurd! They don't call them the THIN blue line for nothing...

Police Chief Paul Goward was tired of looking around his department and seeing blubber hanging over the belts of some of his officers. So he sent out a memo exhorting the "jelly bellies" to shape up.
In the end, the department lost 190 pounds _ all of them belonging to Goward. He was forced out as chief because some of his officers took offense at the memo.

The Oct. 11 memo bruised feelings on the 80-member force, drew at least one anonymous letter of complaint from officers about the chief's management style and made his department the butt of jokes about fat cops and doughnuts.

"If they got their feelings hurt to the extent of `Do something about it,' then I did what I was intending to do," said an unapologetic Goward, a trim 6-footer who was forced to resign his $92,000-a-year post last week.

In his memo, titled "Are You a Jelly Belly," the chief never singled anyone out, and apart from the title, didn't call anyone names.

Instead, he provided a list of 10 reasons police officers should be in shape. He said overweight police poorly represent the profession, poop out when chasing suspects and might have to resort to "a higher level of force" if a criminal got the upper hand in a fight. He said out-of- shape cops are a liability to the city and their families.

"Take a good look at yourself," he wrote. "If you are unfit, do yourself and everyone else a favor. See a professional about a proper diet and a fitness training program, quit smoking, limit alcohol intake and start thinking self-pride, confidence and respectability. And stop making excuses for delaying what you know you should have been doing years ago. We didn't hire you unfit and we don't want you working unfit. Don't mean to offend, this is just straight talk. I owe it to you."

Nothing is funnier than that Sports Center video of those fat New York cops chasing the skinny streaker around Yankee Stadium for what seemed like minutes because he was so much faster than them. Nobody should have stricter health and physical performance standards than cops, except maybe for guys in like Delta Force, Navy SEALS, or something. This police chief was doing exactly the right thing and I think he was quite nice about it. But you have a bunch of crybaby, PC, weenies on the force with thin skin who got this guy fired. The skinny, in-shape criminals are loving this. Luckily for the citizens however, the criminals are stupider than the cops are fat. Most of them wear their pants so baggy and low that they can't run away any how.