PAX Centurion - March / April 2013

Page 12 • PAX CENTURION • March/April 2013 617-989-BPPA (2772) FromCivil Service fairness to politically correct favoritism/preference By James Carnell, Pax Editor B OY, how times change! Back in the early 20 th century, the Boston Globe , the preferred rag of the Boston Brahmin/ Yankee anti-Irish bigots who ran City Hall and the State House, demanded that a new civil-service system be put in place to prevent “politically-appointed hiring by Hibernian highwaymen.” They were mightily upset because upstart Irish and Italians had be- gun to infiltrate the ranks of the police and fire departments, and a new system MUST be put in place in order to introduce “fairness and transparency” into the hiring of po- lice officers, firefighters, and other public employees. The birth of the Civil Service System was begun, in order to introduce a testing system devoid of political influences… Fast forward 100 years: the Boston Globe now editorializes ( Globe editorialist Larry Harmon - 3/9/13) “Boston’s Police test”… for the elimination of civil service and replacing an unbiased test with a politically/ethnically biased “test”. … “ Perhaps the professors (at MIT) could convince the city to jettison the Civil Service police exam altogether.”… Huh???? Yup, now the residents of the ivory towers of 150 Morrissey Blvd. and their affiliated outposts in Newton and Cambridge advocate for abolishing the civil service system in the name of a “new kind of fairness” (How Orwellian is that?) ; that of racial-ethnic-gender preference, according to the arbiters of what is good and fair and proper and politically correct. If hypocrisy and fraud have dictionary definitions, they would have pictures of the Boston Globe and their editorialists printed next to them. The Globe denigrates the service of military veterans for receiving preference before “graduates of Community Colleges or City Year volunteers. ” Ahmmm…My Dear Mr. Harmon… the contributions of military veterans far outweigh the academic contributions of the graduates of our local Community Colleges, as outstanding as those contributions may be. And if wearing red windbreakers and being able to perform jumping-jacks on City Hall Plaza similar to the ceremonies performed before the Dear Leader in Pyongyang, North Korea would make good police of- ficers, then perhaps your “CityYear volunteers” would make excel- lent police recruits. We always need more 21-year old nitwits who think they know how to deal with drug-crazed criminals and gun- toting gang-bangers by singing “We Are The World” and clapping in unison. (By the way, Larry, veterans receive an extra two points on the promotional exam over and above your “City-Year” heroes, not the absolute preference you falsely inferred in your editorial.) Hypocritical Boston Globe goes full circle Unfortunately, our political and departmental leadership, being led by the nose of political correctness and deathly afraid to confront the frauds who seek only to obtain political favors for their rela- tives and friends, will undoubtedly cave-in to whatever the Globe editorialists demand. “Fairness” is a subjective term, subject to whatever the loudest mouth before the TV cameras decides it should be. In point of fact, denigrating the civil service system is the ultimate insult to the many minority officers who have studied, passed and been promoted under the unbiased sys- tem of an exam administered to all officers regardless of race, ethnic- ity, gender or sexual preference. Many, many officers of all back- grounds have studied hard, passed the exam, and been promoted by virtue of their own efforts. To infer otherwise is nothing more than an insidious form of paternalistic, liberal racism. I, the author of this article, did not receive a mark high enough to achieve promotion be- cause I did not study hard enough. That is my fault, and nobody else’s. I do not blame my race, my ethnicity, my gender or anything else. If you desire promotion or appointment, study and pass the exam… It’s really that simple. In his editorial, Mr. Harmon quotes BPD Deputy Superinten- dent Lisa Holmes, who oversees the recruit investigation unit. In the mid-1980’s, I served as Patrol Officer Lisa Holmes’ training officer in Area B. She is an excellent officer and eminently quali- fied for her position, and I admire her greatly. But she is now a Deputy Superintendent, and I am still a patrolman. I also served with/for/under, in various capacities and ranks, Deputy Supt. Paul Johnson, Deputy Supt. William Celester, Deputy Supt. Rafael Ruiz, Deputy Supt. Willis Saunders, Captain James Claiborne, Superintendent Willie Gross, and a host or other outstanding of- ficers who studied hard and achieved the highest levels of the BPD command staff through their own efforts and regardless of their race or ethnicity. They did not need my assistance, nor did they need that of the Boston Globe editorial department. To even infer that some minority officers “…missed their notices to report because their families moved without leaving a forwarding address”... (your words, Mr. Harmon, not mine…) is so condescendingly insulting as to be beyond the realm of belief. How dare you? How stupid do you believe people are? Would you kindly run that line about discrimination and lack of opportunity by me again, Mr. Harmon?.... Unfortunately, our political and departmental leadership, being led by the nose of political correctness and deathly afraid to confront the frauds who seek only to obtain political favors for their relatives and friends, will undoubtedly cave-in to whatever the Globe editorialists demand. “Fairness” is a subjective term, subject to whatever the loudest mouth before the TV cameras decides it should be.