General Discussion

and they don't even have to have any college! And shorter training time, so they will be....significantly less competent.

https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/trump-patel-fbi-recruitment-standards-lower-rcna226690

“Instead of spending about 18 weeks training at the academy in Quantico, Va., the group of agents, tentatively scheduled to start in October, will receive eight weeks,” sources told The Times. The report says this change is being made in response to the projected loss of thousands of agents in September, resulting from early retirements and severance packages some agents have sought as the Trump administration has sought to slash the federal workforce. (The FBI declined to comment to the Times on the reason for the changes.)

The news follows reporting from my colleague Ken Dilanian that the administration’s pressure campaign to force top officials out of the FBI, which has disproportionately affected women and people of color, has prompted demands from Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., that the Justice Department’s inspector general investigate the matter. Dilanian also reported that the FBI would be reinstating a requirement that all agents be able to perform one strict pullup — a requirement that Durbin warned could deplete the number of women agents by 30 percent. Past research has helped bolster this claim.

As for the weakened education and training requirement, there's certainly twisted irony in Trump and his administration breathlessly repeating their bigoted claim that diversity, equity and inclusion policies in the federal government prioritize diversity over merit — only for them to lower their own standards in order to replenish the ranks of one of the most essential crime-fighting organizations in the nation.