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JONESBORO, Ga. - When a spate of black officials were sworn into office this month in Clayton County, it was supposed to be a sign of progress for the historically white, rural county that was the setting for "Gone With The Wind."
Then, one of the newly elected black officials made waves only hours after taking office.
Sheriff Victor Hill called 27 of his employees into a jail holding area, ordered them to hand over their badges and gun, and told them they were fired. They were then escorted out of the building as snipers were perched on the roof; some employees were driven home in vans typically used to transport criminals.
The sheriff called the move necessary, part of a plan to reorganize a dysfunctional department. Those fired - the majority of them white - say they were let go because of their race, age or support of Hill's political opponents including the white sheriff he unseated.
The firings have touched off a racially charged uproar and cast a most unwanted spotlight on a growing suburban Atlanta county where residents thought racial tensions were a thing of the past.
"It gives people an excuse to say, 'I told you so,'" said black resident Kateshia McAllister. "We have to make sure we do what we're supposed to because we're going to be watched anyway."
All but one of the employees returned to work this week following a judge's order that said the firings were probably illegal. But Hill gave them different jobs and said he would try to persuade some of the officers to retire or transfer to other agencies.
Hill disputes any claims that the firings were racially motivated, but he still refuses to say exactly why those 27 employees were fired among the 345 people on his department's payroll.
Of the fired employees, 19 were white, including four of the department's highest-ranking officers. Hill replaced at least four of the white officers with black ones.
"If you take the hype and emotion out of it, everything I've done is within the scope of the law," said Hill, a 39-year-old former state lawmaker and local police officer.
In Clayton County, race matters. Over the past decade, it has rapidly shifted from mainly white and rural to a popular black suburb. As its population rapidly grew - nearly doubling from 1990 to 2000 - the county's demographics rapidly changed. Suddenly blacks became the majority, now making up nearly 57 percent of the population.
The county elected its first black sheriff, district attorney, solicitor general and commission chairman last year.
"We've gotten a lot of black folks out here, so we want African-Americans to represent us," said resident Nate Ryles, a 31-year-old black barber. "But we don't want the controversy."
Ryles cut hair for years before moving to Clayton County to be closer to his business and said he enjoys living in his predominantly black neighborhood - which he knows didn't always exist.
It is for that reason that the sheriff's Jan. 3 firings sparked so much outcry, from whites and blacks alike. The employees appealed to the new county commission chairman, Eldrin Bell, a former Atlanta police chief who criticized Hill's actions and immediately sought the court order that allowed the employees to return to work.
"There's nothing genuine about it," said dismissed black lieutenant Garland Watkins. "How do we proceed with our careers, and how do we work with these same people?"
Watkins is among the employees who were back on the job this week, albeit in demoted positions. Hill assigned the employees to be guards in the jail, including those who previously were deputies and patrol officers. Of the 27 employees, all but two were deputies and officers.
Idyll Parker, who has lived in Jonesboro for 43 years, said while she disagrees with Hill's actions, she does not believe race is the issue. The 62-year-old woman, who is white, said she gets along fine with her black neighbors and does not want to see the Hill controversy give her hometown or county a bad name.
"I don't think it was fair, the way things were done," Parker said. "I just hope it doesn't affect us."
Posts: 396 | From: Blue Springs MO USA | Registered: Oct 2004
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Yes it's time to kick out the whites and put in the blacks - everywhere - business as well as government.
Black juries will free black criminals, like OJ.
We need a Mandela type South African government - communistic redistribution of wealth.
Years ago Jesse Jackson told the blacks to have many babies to be able to outvote whites. We all know that whites fought back with A.I.D.S., knowing that many more blacks than whites would die.
Blacks arise and multiply - let's turn the U.S.A. into Africa.
-------------------- The light of truth is blinding to most.
More comforting to look only at the shadows of falseness. Posts: 4402 | From: Florida | Registered: Jun 2003
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just curious--if a black and white, with exactly the same qualifications,were up for the same job--who would you hire?--lets go a step further. a white against any other race--remember everything else remains equal
-------------------- jordan Posts: 5812 | From: st paul,mn | Registered: Feb 2004
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I don't understand what that has to do with a sherriff that is black firing most of the white staff? As a business owner I would hire whoever could perform best regardless of color. It is the minorities and bleeding hearts that seem to have such trouble with hiring the right man for the job. They firmly beileve that if it so happens the white person was more qualified it must be a case of racism. This is all part of the big lie they use words like diversity or tolerance to either sue for money they never earned or take over companies or small cities like mentioned above
Posts: 396 | From: Blue Springs MO USA | Registered: Oct 2004
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The U.S. Department of Labor boasts that over 175,000 major corporations have programs favoring Blacks over Whites in employment and promotions. “Affirmative Action” is a euphemism for nothing more than blatant racial discrimination. No one should harbor the illusion that these programs simply favor equally qualified Blacks, for they consistently favor less qualified Blacks over better qualified Whites. Examples of this practice are the Bakke and Weber Supreme Court decisions that sanctioned racial quotas. Bakke, who scored in the 90’s on his tests for medical school, was denied entrance in deference to Blacks who scored in the 30’s. University of Texas Law School Professor Leno Graglia recently showed that there were only 16 Blacks in the entire nation who deserved to attend the UTLS by scoring at least the minimum qualification scores (LSAT) of the current White students. This kind of discrimination is grossly unfair and also drives down productivity and diminishes the quality of life. Racial discrimination goes on against Whites in hiring and promotions, in scholarships and college admissions, in labor unions and contracting, both public and private.
Posts: 396 | From: Blue Springs MO USA | Registered: Oct 2004
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quote:Originally posted by jordanreed: just curious--if a black and white, with exactly the same qualifications,were up for the same job--who would you hire?--lets go a step further. a white against any other race--remember everything else remains equal
Things are never equal. However, sometimes things appear to us to be equal, because of our ignorance of all variables at play. In such a circumstance I would hire the black out of pity. However, to let pity intrude into the hiring decision before judging the candidates equal is affirmative action. If we do this we reward incompetence and punish competence. This increases incompetence in business. A society with such incompetency will see its standard of living go down, which hurts everybody - affirmative action is a nation shooting itself in the foot. Afirmative action helps the few at the greater expense of everyone - this is criminal morality. Affirmative action is thus evil.
-------------------- The light of truth is blinding to most.
More comforting to look only at the shadows of falseness. Posts: 4402 | From: Florida | Registered: Jun 2003
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quote:Originally posted by jordanreed: and how about if the white were slightly less qualified?
Hiring a less qualified applicant is stupid - bad business practice which will make the company less efficient, and thus less competitive in the domestic and world market, which lowers the standard of living for a nation - hurts everyone. This is what affirmative action does, which is why affirmative action is stupid and evil (and thus embraced by dumocrats).
-------------------- The light of truth is blinding to most.
More comforting to look only at the shadows of falseness. Posts: 4402 | From: Florida | Registered: Jun 2003
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Maybe they were fired because they were old school racists being held on by the racist police chief. It is amazing how shockingly and unashamedly bigoted southern police can be... I lived in several cities in Louisiana for over a decade.
-------------------- A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions--as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all. --Friedrich Nietzsche Posts: 17 | From: Pennsylvania | Registered: Jan 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Division56: Maybe they were fired because they were old school racists being held on by the racist police chief. It is amazing how shockingly and unashamedly bigoted southern police can be... I lived in several cities in Louisiana for over a decade.
Many northern police are bigoted also. Part of this is from seeing so much crime from the blacks - a disproportionate number of blacks are criminals relative to whites - police deal with black criminals much of the time.
-------------------- The light of truth is blinding to most.
More comforting to look only at the shadows of falseness. Posts: 4402 | From: Florida | Registered: Jun 2003
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Being a former officer I can tell you that your statement is correct Art. Its funny how these people hate the stereotype they have earned yet this guy sees nothing wrong with calling all cops racist because he knew some who were once. I have also worked as a security consultant for many different dept. stores and the numbers are just as disproportionate. They claim they are profiled or singeled out and when you bust them the cry of racism can always be expected it just makes you sick sometimes
Posts: 396 | From: Blue Springs MO USA | Registered: Oct 2004
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Profiling is what police always have done and always need to do - looking at suspects. If you have little evidence you have to look at a broader range of suspects. If you look for robbers that have fled the crime scene, you pay more attention to blacks if blacks commit more crime per capita than whites in that type of crime - blacks are stronger suspects.
Racial profiling should only be described when the police look at a particular race of people, when that race is less likely than another ignored race, to have committed (or likely to commt) a crime. Here you are letting race overide probability and this true racial profiling is racial persecution, or racism.
Many blacks call all instances of police looking at blacks as suspects, even where the crime was likely to have been committed by a black, as racial profiling since they don't want black criminals to be caught. Liberals do this also.
Apparantly affirmative action includes letting blacks commit and get away with crime, in the view of such people.
[ January 18, 2005, 14:22: Message edited by: Art ]
-------------------- The light of truth is blinding to most.
More comforting to look only at the shadows of falseness. Posts: 4402 | From: Florida | Registered: Jun 2003
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