Thursday, September 24, 2020

Not Only An Abhorent Announcement Of Discrimination, But Also Unconstitutional

The Detroit News:  Lawsuit by white Michigan State Police sergeant claims racial, LGBT discrimination.

A female gay white sergeant was allegedly passed over for promotion as a post commander in a favor of an African-American female who was allegedly less qualified, and allegedly had lied in the course of her employment.

The interesting part of the article however is the report of a pronouncement apparently made publicly by the commander of the Michigan State Police:  

Each of the suits points to comments state police director Col. Joseph Gasper reportedly made at a public meeting on Oct. 8, 2019, in which he said the agency was "way too white and way too male," and added that he planned to set aside 25% of future job openings for minorities, and 20% for females.

That certainly constitutes racial set-asides now doesn't it?

A little problem is that such affirmative action and set asides violate the Michigan Constitution Section 26(2):

The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.

That's going to be a problem and his pronouncement just opened the door to lots of discrimination lawsuits by potential new hires turned down because they may be too white or too male, and from current members of the force that may be passed over for promotion based on their being too white or too male.

The Michigan State Police currently has a well-deserved reputation and is renowned for being composed of capable and highly-skilled law enforcement officers - regardless of their color, sex, or sexual orientation.  

Colonel Gaspar risks this reputation with his misguided and illegal affirmative action plan.

1 comment:

Old NFO said...

That one isn't going to end well. Period.