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Comment by causal | Hacker News Reader

I think such a tool could be useful for ensuring all the facts get included, but I hate the idea that some departments could start highering illiterate officers if this tech goes far enough.

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This may be news to some, but many departments already hire officers that are borderline illiterate. It’s especially true here in the south.

My mother enjoyed a ~30 year career in law enforcement while being able to read at a junior high level. And that’s being generous.

Of course that’s just one anecdote, but just spend some time with deputies in rural Alabama and you’ll see what I mean.

never have been in Alabama, and i find that super interesting.

how does anyone end up borderline illiterate in the US for the last several decades? can kids drop out without passing reading, like drop out as grade schoolers?

I've read thousands of police reports. I would say this is true about their literacy, and their typing skills are equally horrible. They also generally really hate writing reports (which are almost universally never read) and tend to make them as short as possible.

Being able to read at a junior high level is literate. The average reading level in the US is 7-8th grade so she’s right in the middle.

> could start highering illiterate officers

I love this mistake.

Heh. Gonna leave it then

Can you elaborate a little bit more?

“Highering” should be “hiring”

I asked for viraptor's elaboration on what he thinks of it.

Thanks for your perspective though.

Normally people don’t come back to explain a joke, because it ruins it.

One could say "it's a joke", without explaining it, thus, not ruining it.

Also, saying some vague shit and then claiming it as a joke is very convenient.

Finally, police injustice is not a subject for humor. It's no laughing matter. I'm not the one who's not "getting it" here.

The original poster said they were worried about this leading to "highering illiterate officers"

Mis-spelling the word 'hiring' as 'highering' when expressing a fear about falling literacy standards in the police is ironic, and therefore funny.

Further elaboration was not warranted, but I'm providing it as a public service.

Highering is an existing, valid word, and it fits the phrase.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/highering

I agree that it is an unusual choice, but that doesn't mean you can assume it was a mispelling.

Moreover, the meaning went through. Ultimately, the word itself does not matter, and none of your explanations are relevant.

That word doesn’t make any sense in this context. Stop digging this hole further FFS.

It makes complete sense, it means "promotion" in that phrase.

If you are going to disagree, please elaborate.

No, nobody ever says “I’m going to higher you” as a way to indicate they are promoting you. Not in the military, not in non-profits, not in the government, and not in any private or public business in the US.

“Higher” is a homophone with “hire” and “hire” already has a critical role in reference to career management.

At this point I can only assume you haven’t worked somewhere where English is the spoken language.

> No, nobody ever says “I’m going to higher you”

People say they want to move up the corporate ladder, which implies higher, and brings a visual analogy to the phrase that is compatible with what I said.

There is no adverbial expression using the radical "up". The adverbiality must come from "high".

> “Higher” is a homophone with “hire” and “hire”

This phrase doesn't make sense.

> At this point I can only assume you haven’t worked somewhere where English is the spoken language.

What you assume doesnt't matter. Where I worked or not doesn't matter.

> This phrase doesn't make sense

Because English is clearly not a language you have a day to day grasp on. Read the rest of the sentence. You weren’t able to correctly split a compound sentence.

I feel like you're not willing to admit you made a mistake.

I didn’t make a mistake. You struggled to read my sentence because you parsed it incorrectly. It’s a compound sentence. Let me split it for you.

> “Higher” is a homophone with “hire” and “hire” already has a critical role in reference to career management.

“Higher” is a homophone with “hire”. “hire” already has a critical role in reference to career management.

That really should be a word: kind of a portmanteau that combines hire and raise up/promote.

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