The Seattle City Council is facing something of a dilemma in its popular pledge to cut the police budget by 50 percent. To do so would require firing a significant number of police officers, which is also popular. The problem is that the firing would be done by seniority and many of the less senior officers are black. The solution according to City Council member Lisa Herbold is simple: fire officers based on their race. While that would be the definition of racial discrimination, Herbold clearly believes that it is discrimination for a good cause. The federal courts are likely to disagree. Most notably, Herbold’s call for racial discrimination against white officers would seek to undue the work of Justice Thurgood Marshall who insisted that racial discrimination unlawful and evil regardless of the race you want to disenfranchise or discriminate against.
Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best released a video calling the plan of Herbold and others “completely reckless.” She also sent a letter to Mayor Jenny Durkan warning that dramatic cuts would require the layoff of hundreds of officers. The Police Department also warned that the firings would include many minority officers.
It was only the last risk that concerned Herbold who promptly suggested discriminating on the basis of race:
Herbold insists that this would be perfectly legal despite the prohibitions under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
What concerns me most is not that such calls for racial discrimination are possibly constitutional but that they are so clearly popular.
The EEOC amplifies this point on its website: “It is unlawful to discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race or color in regard to hiring, termination, promotion, compensation, job training, or any other term, condition, or privilege of employment.”
In taking this position, Herbold is opposing one of the best known opinions by Thurgood Marshall. In McDonald v. Santa Fe Trail Transportation Co. (1976), Justice Thurgood Marshall wrote opinions that called for the broad interpretation of Title VII to protect everyone. In McDonald, two white employees were fired after a theft in the business. The two white employees were held jointly and severally liable with a black employee. However, only the white employees were fired. After they sued under Title VII, Marshall wrote for the majority in denouncing such discrimination against white employees, insisted that “racial discrimination in private employment against whites [must be] on the same terms as racial discrimination against nonwhites.” He denounced “the illogic in retaining guilty employees of one color while discharging those of another color.” While Marshall would vigorously support affirmative action (including his dissent in Bakke), he believed that all races were protected from discrimination under federal law.
This of course would be even more egregious since Herbold wants to fire white officers due to their race alone. They would not be accused of any wrongdoing or failure. The problem is their race.
It is notable that is not an action that is part of or in furtherance of a valid affirmative action plans ordered by a court or approved by a federal agency. See United Steelworkers of America v. Weber (1979) and Johnson v. Transportation Agency (1987). In Ricci v. DeStefano (2009), the Supreme Court ruled against the city of New Haven after a group of white firefighters and a hispanic firefighter challenged the refusal to certify the results of promotion exams in order to promote black firefighters who performed less well. The Court held that the City’s refusal to certify the test was unlawful discrimination under Title VII. If found that “race-based action like the City’s in this case is impermissible under Title VII unless the employer can demonstrate a strong basis in evidence that, had it not taken the action, it would have been liable under the disparate-impact statute.”
Herbold would not only refuse to promote on the basis of race but would fire officers on that basis. No test. Just a pure racially discriminatory program of terminations. Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 (2007), Chief Justice John Roberts once declared “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” That is clearly not the plan of Herbold and any of her colleagues who want to fire officers based on their race.
Liberalism truly is a mental disorder. I just don’t know how any informed person can deny it at this point.
Oh thats just perfect. You got that gun yet citizen?
here’s some crazy black girls attacking a white guy who is trying to protect his girlfriend from this minimob trying to stomp on her head and kill her
I have thousands of videos like this in case anybody doubts there isnt a black on white crime problem,. maybe that’s the real problem, black crime and those who apologize for it?
https://twitter.com/johncardillo/status/1284158917417762818?s=20
this very patient fellow took a lot of assault and battery and didn’t hit back, because, of course THEN THEY WOULD BE CHARGING HIM
IF THE GOVERNMENT DOESNT ALLOW US TO DEFEND OURSELVES FROM THE CRIME THE GOVERNMENT WONT STOP
THEN THE GOVERNMENT ITSELF BECOMES AN ENEMY TOO….now the question is always which subset of government”
because as we have seen, they vary quite a bit. Seattle local government for example, is basically an enemy held territory worse than Venezuela
I bet Maduro doesnt put up with the same kind of crp that they do there.
this country is out of control. it’s time to fight back, by any means necessary and effective
i hope that when the counterattack comes, it aims high at the top and snags a few billionaires for the gallows pole. that would be a change of pace alright.
the ones who green light this kind of abuse and crime with their social media and universities and all the rest of the apologies for black crime.
well I wont hold my breath.
Kurtz– Disgusting video. I have seen a lot of the same and thought we are in a damped down race war and have been for some time. If I were on the Floyd jury I would vote to acquit all of the officers even if I thought one of them killed the thug– Which I don’t. The recently released audio transcripts of the encounter with this criminal together with the autopsy strongly suggest Floyd died of his own medical and drug problems. Free the officers and paint over the stupid Black Lives Matter murals.
So exactly where does Lisa Herbold live? I’ll bet we can make her beg for a white cop to come and rescue her….
When do we start rioting and exterminating these leftist subhumans?! It is time to refresh the Tree of Liberty with the blood of these traitorous and seditious petty tyrants, despots and leftists!!!!
umn, you should step down from your job also, and let a person from a minority have it.
Its not illegal to discriminate against white ppl, cigarette smokers, pregnant women,, the list can go on and on
These people are literally unfit for office.
Guess you ought to give up your position on the city council to someone of color
“Herbold clearly believes that it is discrimination for a good cause.” see who these people are? they just want power for political revenge. Baltimore couldn’t find enough minority candidates with out a criminal record, so good luck with that. the citizens deserve what they get. sew the wind, reap the whirlwind. another city I’ll only ever see in videos.
Liberals seem to think they’re woke and enlightened… so smart.
Historically, the first thing a socialist/communist regime does is round up the “woke and enlightened” and execute them.
Herbals should set the example herself by quitting and be replaced by a black city council person. Maybe ALL white city council members resign and be replaced by black only council. Same logic!! Idiots, believe they smoking too much weed in Washington state.
Thanks to her, I can start “not” hiring any more black applicants for the sake of quotas. I would prefer to use Hispanics to achieve racial balance. Those dudes really work their rear ends off. I would just as soon blacks and stupid like the mayor of Seattle do their thing and normal people do theirs.
LAS– Interesting comment. I have a friend from India who had a work intensive business who hired a lot of Hispanics. He thought he had a duty to hire some blacks, but it just didn’t work out. With a measure of moral pain he went back to a mostly Hispanic workforce because, as you say, they worked their butts off. Other people might have completely different experiences, but that was his. I have noticed that bythebook who fires racism charges liberally here has never said how many blacks work for him.
Interesting premise….discrimination for a good cause. Citizens of Seattle, will you consider that it’s possible…..just possible….that white supremacy may have been allowed to flourish among your police because it exists in your City Council? The Council has governing power over the police department and have been failing all this time up to now due to a racist blind eye Perhaps you should also consider firing all white city council members with those officers?
Our country is in ruins. You think it’s GETTING bad? It’s already there. Imagine in 1980 if someone told you that this story would exist in 2020. You’d never believe it. We are in ruins.
Her staff is entirely white.
figures
but they’re the good kind…
Is she evil or just plain stupid?
both…
Yes
Can’t she be both? I mean, that’s all the ingredients for a Democrat activist.
and racism.
Ms. Herbold is white. Perhaps she should be fired as well.
So is everyone on her staff
This just shows how stupid people in charge can be. Just check everyone’s record and fire the ones guilty of the greatest number and worst crimes.
Next on Seattle’s city council agenda is to have a monthly book burning
more true then not.
Perhaps the Seattle city council should require all white officers to wear white stars
I think this woman is very judgmental and uses a lot of dog whistles.