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Boston Ordered to Hire White Firefighters
AP | 8/26/03

Posted on 08/26/2003 3:54:26 AM PDT by kattracks

BOSTON, Aug 26, 2003 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Four white men passed over for firefighting jobs in favor of minority candidates who scored lower on civil service tests must be hired as soon as possible, a federal judge has ruled.

The men had sued the Boston Fire Department for discrimination. They must also be awarded back pay and seniority they would have earned since October 2000, the date they were denied employment, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Stearns ordered Monday.

A fifth plaintiff who was hired last October also will get a pay raise under the ruling.

"I think hopefully we're just going back to normal, the way it was meant to be, so that now they are just hiring the best person, regardless of race or color," said Harold Lichten, the attorney for all five men.

The city is exploring its options, officials said.

"The city has just received this decision," said Seth Gitell, a spokesman for Mayor Thomas M. Menino. "The city's lawyers are reviewing it and considering its implications for future hiring."

The judge's decision applies only to the men who sued and was not intended to establish a precedent for other white applicants who were passed over in October 2000. Joseph Quinn already has been hired; the other plaintiffs were Sean O'Brien; Robert Dillon; Joseph Sullivan, and C. Roger Kendrick Jr.

An NAACP lawyer questioned the decision.

"If a return to normal means a return to the way the Boston Fire Department conducted its hiring prior to the mid-1970s, it will be a disaster for any applicants of color in this city," Toni Wolfman said.

The judge at first rejected the civil rights suit filed in April 2001, the first to challenge the department's affirmative action hiring policy since 1989, when it was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

But the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Stearns, ruling in March that the city has achieved its goal of racial parity among entry-level firefighters, and no longer needed to abide by a nearly 30-year-old court order that departments across the state have used as a model to correct racial imbalance.



TOPICS: Breaking News; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: affirmativeaction; boston; discrimination; diversity; firefighters; workplace
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1 posted on 08/26/2003 3:54:27 AM PDT by kattracks
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To: kattracks
The city is exploring its options, officials said.

I guess that means finding a different judge with no regard for the law.

2 posted on 08/26/2003 4:01:18 AM PDT by arasina (Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall in Martha's Vineyard this week?)
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To: kattracks
Boston Ordered to Hire White Firefighters

Hiring and/or promoting people by skin color? That's Racism w/ a capital R!

3 posted on 08/26/2003 4:01:50 AM PDT by putupon (If you want to see something here you like, post it yourself)
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To: kattracks
Liberals are insane. Even if AA was a good thing, if I was trapped in a burning building I would hope I had the best firemen coming to rescue me or my property. Just how does Racial Diversity make a better fire department?
4 posted on 08/26/2003 4:02:39 AM PDT by max_rpf
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To: putupon
Read the friggin article.
5 posted on 08/26/2003 4:08:19 AM PDT by Husker24
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To: kattracks
From another thread:

Affirmative action-related fraud does have precedent. In 1990, the Boston Fire Department found that six of its firefighters had falsely claimed minority status on their applications, including white twin brothers Phillip and Paul Malone.

Initially, the brothers failed to qualify due to low test scores on their first test. On new applications, they claimed a great-grandmother was black. Though they earned the same test scores the second time around, they qualified for jobs under new minority outreach standards. After 10 years on the job, they were fired for fraud.


Race-Based Policies Raise Fraud Concerns

6 posted on 08/26/2003 4:13:16 AM PDT by Fraulein (TCB)
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To: kattracks
Problem is......the City of Boston was probably operating under regulations fostered by some Federal liberal do-good agency.

The same type of Big Brothers who banned swiss knives on airplanes.

When was the last time a terrorist hijacked a plane with a swiss knife?

7 posted on 08/26/2003 4:15:49 AM PDT by JimVT
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To: Fraulein
Why can't a caucasian person claim to be an African-American on a job application?

All modern humans are descended from ancestors in Africa.

Therefore, aren't we all African-Americans?

8 posted on 08/26/2003 4:28:22 AM PDT by Momaw Nadon (The mind is like a parachute. It doesn't work unless it's open.)
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Comment #9 Removed by Moderator

To: kattracks

LET ME TELL YA SOMETHIN'

10 posted on 08/26/2003 4:32:15 AM PDT by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I will defend to your death my right to say it)
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To: BushCountry
Just how does Racial Diversity make a better fire department?

****Warning this is a joke**** Improves language skills. This is an average conversation between firefighter after racial diversity.

Firefighter 1: Ferreal beeyotch, dat fire was off the chain.

Firefighter 2: Shoulda seen da bling-bling on dat sick holmes who got whacked by da smoke.

Firefighter 1: Nigga, thas was suttin'

11 posted on 08/26/2003 4:33:37 AM PDT by BushCountry (To the last, I will grapple with Democrats. For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at Liberals.)
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To: kattracks
An NAACP lawyer questioned the decision. "If a return to normal means a return to the way the Boston Fire Department conducted its hiring prior to the mid-1970s, it will be a disaster for any applicants of color in this city," Toni Wolfman said.

No MR. NAACP. That was 30 years ago. The people doing the hiring back then are now retired and/or dead. Its now 2003, not the 1800's, not the mid-1970's. Get a clue. The race baiting and scare tactics will not get your "constituency" hired. Getting a good education and being the best qualified candidate for the job will. So instead of teaching your "constituency" to learn how to race bait their way through life and how to use white guilt to their advantage, maybe, just maybe, we'll see you hold the teacher's union accountable for the quality of education delivered to the inner cities (either that, or support vouchers).

12 posted on 08/26/2003 4:34:50 AM PDT by Go Gordon
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To: Husker24
Read the friggin article.

Read between the lines; it really takes away from a post when when you have to use a < /sarcasm>, IMHO.

13 posted on 08/26/2003 4:37:54 AM PDT by putupon (If you want to see something here you like, post it yourself)
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To: kattracks
The city is exploring its options, officials said...An NAACP lawyer questioned the decision.

I question the need for the outdated and discriminatory NAACP.

14 posted on 08/26/2003 4:40:07 AM PDT by mtbopfuyn
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To: kattracks
The city is exploring its options, officials said.

Are you kidding me??? I dont want some white boy saving me, I want an under-qualified black guy to save me from this fire....be off with you cracka and get me a soul brutha.

15 posted on 08/26/2003 4:40:08 AM PDT by smith288 (For every column Ann Coulter writes, liberals worldwide experience shrinkage)
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To: putupon
Ahhh..how very Lazamataz of you...
16 posted on 08/26/2003 4:40:42 AM PDT by smith288 (For every column Ann Coulter writes, liberals worldwide experience shrinkage)
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To: smith288
Ahhh..how very Lazamataz of you...

Check out #3, Laz

17 posted on 08/26/2003 4:43:44 AM PDT by smith288 (For every column Ann Coulter writes, liberals worldwide experience shrinkage)
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To: Momaw Nadon
Therefore, aren't we all African-Americans?

No, no, no. Implicit in AA and PC in general is an unwritten sense of how long history is. For example if you are Black, it only counts if you were still in Africa at the commencement of the slave trade. Blacks who had already gone to the middle east or asia by then don't count.

Similarly, palestinian statehood only goes back to 1948 when (undesirable) Jordanians were forcably relocated to Palestine (a British colonial administrative district) in order to try to halt the reformation of Israel. The fact that all that area is historically Israel and existed as Israel for several thousand years before it was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD doesn't count.

It also doesn't count that white Afrikaaners, many whose families have lived in Africa for 200 - 300 years, aren't Africans either. In this country, native americans are obviously pure whereas I am not, since my anscestors have only lived on this continent since ~1580, obviously 500 years is not enough to make me a native-american.

So, if you are palestinian, history began 55 years ago, if you are caucasian of European descent, history became immutable about 10,000 years ago. If you are black history began about 400 years ago. And if you are Jewish, well, history does not apply to you at all.

18 posted on 08/26/2003 4:45:53 AM PDT by lafroste
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To: kattracks
"The city's lawyers are reviewing it and considering its implications for future hiring."

It's easy, fellows. You don't discriminate.

I never have, even when it wasn't against the law.

19 posted on 08/26/2003 4:46:09 AM PDT by Savage Beast (The American Heartland--the Spirit of Flight 93)
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To: smith288

20 posted on 08/26/2003 4:48:10 AM PDT by putupon (If you want to see something here you like, post it yourself)
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