If blacks can’t get fair and unbiased treatment at the hands of the government, then whom can we trust?
It was recently announced that “The Secret Service, the federal agency tasked with protecting the president [as well as guarding the currency] agreed to pay $24 million to more than 100 of its black agents who claim that their superiors fostered racism.”
The agents, who “deemed their work environment blatantly discriminatory, with white agents getting routinely promoted over more qualified African-Americans,” filed suit the nearly two decades ago. The plaintiffs also charged that they often overheard their bosses using racial slurs to describe black people, including world leaders.
Beyond the monetary settlement, the Secret Service will launch a hotline for agents to report bias, and will also change its hiring procedures and keep detailed records on promotion factors. Still the agency admitted no wrongdoing or institutional bias in settling the suit, according to documents obtained by the Washington Post, which is akin to them saying “we didn’t do anything wrong, and we certainly are not going to do anything wrong again.”
But, in spite of the protestations, payments — which include individual lump sums as high as $300,000 — will be made to “remedy the black agents’ missed opportunities,” the prosecution’s lead attorney Jennifer Klan said. “At long last…black Secret Service agents will not be constrained by the glass ceiling that held back so many for so long,” she said.
If racism was — and in some instances probably still is — so blatant at one of the top federal law enforcement agencies in the country, it’s reasonable to assume that this culture of bias is to some degree or another present in other agencies. Of course, the fear for minorities is that under the incoming administration in Washington, things are going to regress in terms of fairness, leaving us with no one to trust.
Steve Loomis to the Rescue?
By all accounts Tommie Griffin is a deeply disturbed cop. He apparently has the double whammy of alcoholism and female trouble. He favors cheap booze and even cheaper women. He’s currently sitting in a jail cell (or perhaps recently released as you read this), charged with raping and pistol-whipping a woman he was in a relationship with, a relationship that was evidently slated to end right around the time Griffin went off the deep end and flushed his life down the toilet.
But this is not the first time Griffin has had charges of abuse filed against him by a female. Nine years ago a woman told police that he restrained her at his home and attempted to force himself on her in an unwanted sexual manner. However, the charges were eventually reduced to a misdemeanor, over the woman’s objections. If it had been a male that wasn’t a cop, the charge very well could have been kidnapping.
But whoever got him off the hook the last time — probably the police union — didn’t do Griffin any favors. So instead of addressing his problems at the time — which I am told were manifest and recognized — he was cut some slack, and now another woman has been brutalized. I sincerely hope that this time Tommie Griffin gets the help he so desperately needs, and that Steve Loomis doesn’t rush in to save him and put him back on the street once again with a badge and gun. The next time some woman might end up dead.
Screenwriter Needed
Years ago I used to try my hand at screenwriting (I never hit the jackpot, though) because it’s an excellent way of reaching a huge audience with your message. Well, I’ve got another idea for a screenplay (set in the period just before and during the Civil War). But due to my workload on other projects I simply don’t have the proper amount of time to devote to the project. I’m looking for a budding screenwriter that knows the genre and format to work with me on it. I’m more than willing to equally share the screen credit, and the tons of money we are sure to make. Got to think positive, right? Send me an email: mansfieldf at gmail.com if you’re interested.
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author at http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com