Missed opportunity for a safer Buffalo

   WASHINGTON -- So the score is Rochester $5.8 million, Buffalo 0.

   That's how much the two nearby cities got in federal stimulus grant money
for the hiring of new police officers -- and it might just be because Buffalo
didn't apply for the grant.

   The city didn't apply because it had existing police vacancies, and thus
wasn't eligible to apply.

   Those vacancies occurred because it could not find enough minority police
candidates, which it must do under a federal court case dating back to
1978.

   Yes, 31 years later, Buffalo -- which was found to have discriminated in its
hiring of police and firefighters in the 1970s -- is still under court order on
its hiring practices.

   Which is enough to make you wonder: Will this lawsuit never end?

   -- Jerry Zremski

Comments

[DUH]

keep electing liberals to ruin our city,county,and state...the idiot voters in Buffalo get what they deserve....

[Dan]

Yes, indeed, it's the liberals fault. It wasn't the conservatives who got us into a phony war, sent the budget deficit skyrocketing, then presided over the worst economic debacle since the Great Depression. No, that wasn't the conservatives. It was all just a mirage.

[Kenny]

The City doesn't scan, assess, view or show any results in the grant process, this of course, would take honesty and organization, which this bumbling administration has neither. Mickey Kearns should be shouting from a soap box ! The news headlines are making his campaign ads for him!!!!!!

[OPMike]

Why in the world would anyone want more government employees, even cops? The so called free ride on the backs of federal taxpayers only lasts for 3 years. Then what? The mayor and the city council will once again trek down the road to Albany, boo hooing all the way, singing the poor city blues and begging for even more state taxpayer money to pay for the over priced cops.

And that is not the end of it. Guess who is going to pay their over priced retirement benefits - often more than double their annual salary? You got it. They will stick it to the already overburdened state taxpayer, once again.

Tell the feds to keep the money and give it to other dumb and stupid cities. There are more than enough of them out there.

[Patsy]

Excuse me DUH...but the federal judge..known as Curtin was appointed by politicians for life and not elected by the liberal people of Buffalo!
If you have a complaint about a decision he made that has affected this ciy tremendously, some 30 yrs later...write to him, post your outrage on any and all blogs and attempt a letter to the editor of this paper.
Don't blame the citizens for this judicial appointment!

[OPMike]

Patsy,

Your comment that "federal judge..known as Curtin was appointed by politicians for life and not elected by the liberal people of Buffalo!" is only partly true.

Curtin was nominated on November 28, 1967 by just one politician - President Lyndon B. Johnson. And Johnson - one the most liberal presidents of modern times - was elected with the help of the very liberal people of Buffalo!

It was on December 14, 1967, that Curtin was confirmed by the group of "politicians" known as the U.S. Senate.

It is important to keep in mind just how much damage one liberal president and one liberal judge can do. It was judge Curtin messing around with the Buffalo schools that caused over a hundred thousand people to leave the city.

The damage that will be caused by Obama and his soon to be appointed liberal judges is going to be catastrophic.

Elections have consequences. You will soon get what you asked for.

[PaulS]

Yo, Dan. The Second Great Depression started in November '06, just when the Dems regained Congress, and embarked on their normal course of raising taxes on everyone and everything.
Also, what does National politics have to do with the blundering of the idiots in Buffalo?
You could say that Liberal policies have resulted in the stupidity of "biased" exams!

[OPMike]

Well here we go again. The hot-headed, ill-tempered, explosive Jayvonna Kincannon is involved in yet another run in with the authorities. Jayvonna and her equally hot-headed, ill-tempered, explosive family are involved in a street fight with as many as 40 people.

Maybe Buffalo really does need more cops after all.

Street fights with 40 "neighbors" yelling, screaming and punching. 16 squad cars needed to quell the violence and get the natives back into their huts.

Now that's what you call The City of Good Neighbors!

[Danno]

Perhaps its time that the City Attorney make a motion in Federal Court to have Curtin's order mandating racial quotas in police hiring rescinded. Times have changed.

[beastfan]

We don't need additional police officers. People are leaving Buffalo in droves. All that will be left soon is the architecture.

[HapKLein]

Wpw, don't you just love the stream of logic that flows in these blogs.

I guess Jayvonna and her family of forty some fighting nuts are at the basis for the city not having enough police officers. Does this even sound plausible.

The fact is Buffalo just does not educate, orient nor train people of color to enter public service. The city mostly ignores potential and pretends there is no problem.

[Buffalo Libertarian]

Danno wrote: "Perhaps its time that the City Attorney make a motion in Federal Court to have Curtin's order mandating racial quotas in police hiring rescinded. Times have changed."

Particularly in the light of more recent Supreme Court decisions - like the one earlier this year in which Hartford, Connecticuit was told it couldn't set aside promotions simply because there weren't enough blacks who passed the test. More about that case here: http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-new_haven-firefighters-0630.artjun30,0,4824581.story.

But I think we need to ask the question of WHY there aren't enough "minorities" applying for police department vacancies. Could it have anything to do with the way police officers are so often perceived by "minorities"? (I put "minorities" in quotation marks because I don't believe in this whole idiotic and unamerican concept of majority and minority - if you were born in the US or are a naturalized citizen then you're an American and that's the only identity that matters).

Until the Curtin decision is reversed, the city is stuck.

[Buffalo Libertarian]

HapKlein wrote: "The fact is Buffalo just does not educate, orient nor train people of color to enter public service. The city mostly ignores potential and pretends there is no problem."

And you think that the city of Buffalo does educate, orient or train whites to enter public service? How exactly does that happen in a city where whites and non-whites are subjected to the same government indoctrination center (public school) curriculum? Is there some other agency/department within the city government that is tasked with making sure whites are educated, oriented or trained to enter public service and making sure non-whites are not?

It's not the city's job to make sure people are educated, oriented or trained for public service; it's the job of those individuals who are interested in public service to educate and orient themselves and obtain the necessary training. And even if someone has good potential for public service, why would anyone other than those seeking patronage jobs (as payback for political favors) want to given how it seems to be a general attitude in Western New York that people in public service don't have real jobs, don't do any work, etc.?

[Danno]

Buffalo Libertarian: Why don't more "minorities" apply for police jobs? It's not because of the perception of police within the minority community, it's simply because very few are qualified. Besides poor performance on written tests, criminal convictions and drug use are shockingly common.

[Buffalo Libertarian]

Danno, as one who believes in the colorblind society, I'm not inclined to accept the notion that poor performance on written tests, criminal convictions and drug use are because of their darker skin color. That some "minorities" have been able to succeed on the police force and in other avenues of public service suggests that there's a lot to be said for hard work, applying oneself and making the choice not to engage in maladaptive behaviors that have become almost stereotypical of certain communities.

[joe]

New York City has 7 officers for every thousand people. Buffalo has 2. Unbelievable with the state of the city and the gang violence infection, we drop the ball on hiring more capable officers. It should be viewed as criminal negligence on Brown's ineptitude.

[joe]

Brown = Incompetence