Squalid

The seamy side of the New Haven firefighter controversy.

It shows how a combination of vote-hungry politicians and local political agitators -- you might call them community organizers -- worked with the approval of elite legal professionals like Judge Sotomayor to employ racial quotas and preferences in defiance of the words of the Civil Rights Act.

One of the chief actors was the Rev. Boise Kimber, a supporter of Mayor John DeStefano....

After the results of the promotion test were announced, showing that 19 white and one Hispanic firefighter qualified for promotion, Kimber called the mayor's chief administrative officer opposing certification of the test results.

The record shows that DeStefano and his appointees went to work, holding secret meetings and concealing their motives, to get the Civil Service Board to decertify the test results. Kimber appeared at a board meeting and made "a loud, minutes-long outburst" and had to be ruled out of order three times.

This does not surprise me. Local politicians are one of the lowest forms of life, a few steps down the evolutionary scale from pond scum. But they know which side of their bread is buttered.

I was also the victim of a racial shakedown, when I paid for the sins in my past lives by directing the ^(^%())#$ library. A young man I will call Sammy who worked for me got upset about something, and went calling on all the Board members to plead his case. He happened to do this on Easter Sunday, and one of the Board members insisted he be fired. (The young man was of East Asian extraction, and didn't realize that Easter wasn't the right time to call.)

We went through the tedious work of getting rid of him required by Civil Service. Meanwhile, he started showing up at Board meetings, accompanied by his whole family; he complained to the local Civil Rights Commission, giving it something to do for the first time in its existence; he threatened to sue, and the Board lawyered up.

The town did not even try to fight it. The town manager told me they did not have insurance covering this kind of thing, so they had no choice but to pay him; they even hired a lawyer for him and paid the lawyer. They gave him everything he asked for--including the right to come back to work in the library. But I put my foot down and wouldn't have him back, and I won this point.

I call it blackmail.

There is a sequel to this story: I noticed someone stuck at the side of the road with a flat tire and slowed down, intending to call for help on my cell phone. The driver looked up---it was Sammy. I drove on.

Thanks to Instapundit for the link.