It’s Austin...
Activity seeking persons uninterested in a position, but otherwise meeting the qualification of being black. Chief should be fired immediately.
How many “people of color” applied to the fire department and were turned away? I’m betting “none”.
How DEI Cost Lives in Texas: The Tragedy of Austin’s Fire Chief
In the early hours of July 4th, 2025, flash floods tore through Kerr County, Texas, overwhelming communities and claiming more than a hundred lives. As families were swept from homes and children clung to rooftops, the state called for help. Rescue boats were scarce. Time was short. And Austin’s elite Swift Water Special Operations Teams, some of the best-trained in the country, sat idle. Why? Because Fire Chief Joel Baker said no.
The justification was bureaucratic. Austin had, at one point, been owed approximately $800,000 in reimbursement for past deployments. But even Baker admitted the state was paying its bills and that no overdue balance existed. The real reason, it seems, was politics. And beneath that politics lies something even more disturbing: a bureaucracy that values optics over outcomes, identity over merit, and ideology over life….
The traditional qualifications for a firefighter, strength, stamina, intelligence, rapid decision-making under pressure, have not changed. But the standards have. In response to the predictable failure of his preferred demographics to meet existing thresholds, Baker simply changed the thresholds. He launched investigations into why minority applicants were underperforming. The answer was as predictable as the question: the tests were too hard. So Baker made them easier. Lowered the IQ bar. Softened physical expectations. All to ensure that more boxes could be checked on quarterly DEI reports.
The irony is brutal. The very teams Chief Baker refused to deploy, the Swift Water rescue units, are disproportionately composed of white men. They represent the last meritocratic redoubt within the Austin Fire Department. Many have years of experience and have saved hundreds of lives. But Baker did not build them. He has not promoted them. In fact, he has worked to marginalize them in favor of his DEI vision.
So when Governor Abbott issued the request for pre-deployment on July 2nd and 3rd, before the floodwaters peaked, Baker balked. Not because he feared for the safety of his crews, who train for this very scenario. Not because the request was unclear. And certainly not because of funding: Texas law mandates that the state reimburse such deployments. Baker knew this. But instead of action, he delivered delay. Instead of deploying a full contingent of trained teams, he sent a trickle. Three rescue swimmers at first. Eight more the next day. Another six after that. Lives were lost in those hours. And those lives are not coming back…
More at link
https://x.com/amuse/status/1942955166975553778
DEI= Don’t Expect Intelligence.
After the brush fires in Los Angeles it was found that “diversity” was the cause of many of the problems that led to 16,000 buildings destroyed and 27 dead. Only 1 of the ‘diverse’ has been fired and she gets a 6 figure pension!