The Supreme Court ruled in Ricci v. DeStafano that a particularly bizarre form of affirmative action is unconstitutional. You can’t just throw out a test because you don’t like the results. In 2003 a firefighter’s promotional exam produced no black candidates. The city of New Haven threw out the whole exam and promoted no one. I’m against racial discrimination and…
Tag: race
Homicides and Race
The New York Times has a nice map of homicides in the city. You can select by various variables, but unfortunately not more than one at a time. The Baltimore Sun has a similar but better map. I’m always a bit surprised by just how few white homicide victims there are. Or, conversely, how many of the victims are minority.…
Police Officer Jokes About Murder Victim
That’s just about as exciting a headline as “dog bites man.” I joked about murder victims. Of course you joke about murder victims. I mean, you do try and wait till you’re away from from the murder scene before joking about murder victims (though I didn’t even always pass that test). So after work — after seeing another person take…
What’s News?
Why were the Oakland police shootings front-page nationwide news and the Pittsburgh police shootings not? I don’t think it’s just the difference between 3 versus 4 officers killed. Somehow an angry violent black killer makes for better headlines than an angry violent white killer. Am I supposed to believe that white killers just flip out and lose it while black…
Baltimore NAACP Vice President Arrested, Not Charged
The Vice President of the NAACP is out there copping like a junkie? He’s arrested and then not charged. I’m shocked. Shocked. WJZ reports: Police say Staten, who is an executive committee member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Maryland conference, was in the driver’s seat of a car that had stopped near Pennsylvania Avenue and…
The Ed Norris Bike Ride
The Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #3 is pleased to announce and support the1st Annual “Ed Norris Bike Ride” Fundraiser to be held on Saturday, March 28th, that will support the newly established Baltimore Metropolitan FOP Police Widows and Children’s Fund. How can this be? I’m all for bike rides and raising money for good causes, but I…
Embrace the Right
At the closing of Obama’s inauguration, Joseph Lowery said these controversial words: “We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right.” Often, I…
Ghetto Court
The Detroit News reports: Mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr.’s administration was dealt an embarrassing blow Friday, after his top lawyer ignited a racial flap by saying the city’s 36th District Court was “acting like a ghetto court.” Kathleen Leavey, who is white, resigned as the city’s corporation counsel Thursday, but said the comment was misinterpreted. That same day, the court’s chief…
Shoot Don’t Shoot
My former firearms instructor sent me this link. It’s a fun little game. Shoot the guys with the gun, not the guys with wallets and cell phones. You won’t do it perfectly (and neither do cops). You face around 100 people, my guess is half are black, half are white, half are armed, half are unarmed. All in all, it…
Police kill white people, too
But you usually don’t hear about it. I call this the Al Sharpton effect. There is no white version of Al Sharpton. As the trial of the officers involved in the Sean Bell killing begins, I’ve been thinking more about police-involved shootings and race. Given media reports, it certainly seems like police only kill black people. But I know this…