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| A slap at the Bravest |
| 2010-01-25 |
| The judicial keelhauling of New York's Bravest continues apace. Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis -- without a shred of evidence that the FDNY had discriminated against minority applicants -- last week imposed strict racial hiring quotas on the department. For every five new hires, Garaufis ordered, the department must reserve two spots for black applicants and one for Hispanic applicants -- until precisely 293 minority firefighters have been hired. He also ruled that fully 7,400 minority applicants who took the FDNY entrance exam in 1999 and 2002 could claim monetary damages from the city. It's a ruling as absurd as it is offensive. Absurd -- because, despite Garaufis' pinpoint precision in judging exactly the ratios needed to satisfy the purported demands of racial justice, his evidence for actual discrimination doesn't exist. Indeed, he ruled that merely because the test used in '99 and '02 -- which no one has demonstrated is anything but totally job-related -- didn't produce the desired racial outcome, FDNY brass must have been intentionally biased against minorities. That's nonsense on stilts: The FDNY didn't become the best metropolitan firefighting force in the world by focusing on anything but whether applicants could do the job. On the other hand, injecting considerations other than competence into hiring decisions is the first step down a dangerous path. Besides, few things are more offensive to American notions of fairness and equity than strict racial quotas. To be sure, there are probably a number of things the FDNY can do to boost the minority presence in its ranks. But on this ruling, a vigorous appeal -- to the Supreme Court, if necessary -- is more than appropriate. Basic fairness demands it. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #7 So when will the good Judge rule on the NBA? Exactly. People need to picket Nicks games with "End the racial imbalance in the Nicks team! More whites!" placards. See how that gets received. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2010-01-25 12:08 |
| #6 Thats grim ... Welcome to nuLabour think tanks .. |
| Posted by: Oscar 2010-01-25 10:24 |
| #5 Unless Obama can fill another two seats, hard quotas won't survive SCOTUS' already established precedent. I think Ogabe would need just one more - if he was replacing Kennedy or one of the conservatives. Here's the current ideological scoreboard on SCOTUS: Conservative: Roberts, Alito, Scalia, Thomas Leftist: Stevens, Breyer, Ginsburg, Sotomayor Swing vote: Kennedy I keep expecting Ogabe to offer Kennedy some goodie to get him to retire - some kind of make-work "international law" position at the UN or something. And the Chicago boys are probably going over Kennedy's background with a fine-tooth comb, looking for something to pass along to their operatives in the sockpuppet media. |
| Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) 2010-01-25 09:42 |
| #4 Didn't the Supreme Court rule on a similar case last year in the contrary manner? Ricci v. DeStefano was decided on June 29, 2009 and said that the city of New Haven, CT illegally discriminated against white firefighters who were denied promotion because the department had strict racial quotas. |
| Posted by: Eric Jablow 2010-01-25 09:27 |
| #3 So when will the good Judge rule on the NBA? |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2010-01-25 09:10 |
| #2 Apartheid America. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2010-01-25 09:02 |
| #1 Unless Obama can fill another two seats, hard quotas won't survive SCOTUS' already established precedent. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2010-01-25 08:59 |