NYPD Hiring!

Mark A R Kleiman is concerned that valuable infantrymen are being recruited away from US armed services, after having been trained to be valuable infantrymen at public expense.

Well then, what of this?

NYPD Hiring! Take Free Exam at Camp Lejeune, Wed., April 7th

You’ve protected THE WORLD’S GREATEST NATION. Now,
protect THE WORLD’S GREATEST CITY. Don’t miss the
opportunity to take our FREE EXAM at Camp Lejeune,
Wed, April 7 - 1800 hours, Marston Pavilion, 730
Seth William Blvd, Camp Lejeune, NC. Call:
1-800-550-3836. Please bring military I.D. The NYPD
is continuously hiring and test scores for all
active military will be kept indefinitely. If unable
to attend apply online at:
http://tracking.military.com/cgi-bin/outlog.cgi?url=http://www.nypd2.org/html/recruit/policeofficer.html
by April 16 for the New York City exam. Or call 212-RECRUIT.

Granted, Mark's concern was voiced in the context of the Blackwater employees (former military men) murdered in Fallujah.

Should this be stopped? I see little difference between this and non-compete clauses that were common when cable TV applications engineers were a hot commodity. What makes me valuable to one employer will to another employer, and I'm free to change employers if I can find one whose overall package is better.

Bringing the discussion back to territory that is familiar to me, I see a parallel between this issue and broad civilian gun ownership. Uncle Sugar trains hundreds of thousands of people to use lethal force responsibly. Immediately, Uncle does so for his own specific purposes, namely to field a competent army. But the training, if done well and kept up, becomes available to the civilian sector through the men and women who seek employment as sworn peace officers, commercial security guards, and armed citizens.

People who have not received this training, people who do not own firearms, and people who have not sought and received permission to CCW benefit from those who do. In fact, people who would never dream of receiving such training, people who object to widespread gun ownership, and people who want to outlaw all forms of concealed carry (except for agents of the government) derive a benefit.

Providing the training, even to personnel who will return that investment directly to Uncle Sugar for only another year or two then pursue richer opportunities, should not be counted as a net loss to Uncle, but as a net gain to all of us.