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The Adventures of Jake and Vinnie© – Episode #31

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You Can’t Catch What You Can’t See

You don’t know me.

You don’t want to know me.

 

I don’t have a name.

I only have a face…and it’s the face of Fear.

 

My heart is black and my eyes are dead.

 

But; you won’t recognize me.

I’m not from around here. I’m not from anywhere, except the last place I’ve been.

 

I don’t want you to like me and I don’t care if you hate me. Hate me because you fear me. You fear me so much that I rob you of your sleep. You keep the TV on 24/7, hoping to hear that I have been captured. You are a fool! I haven’t destroyed your world yet and still, I affect you in that way. You hate me for all of the uncertainty; not knowing when I’ll strike.

 

You want to believe that I won’t come if you’re home. It really doesn’t matter; I’ll get you anyway! You’re a prisoner in your own home and you don’t have to be. It would be better for you if you weren’t at home. You might even live and if you do, chalk it up to a stroke of Luck.

 

Just knowing that you fear me exhilarates me. I feed off of your fear. It energizes me; it gives me purpose and immense enjoyment.

 

I don’t pray to a God, so I don’t concern myself with questions of Redemption. You will pray to God that I don’t find you, but you have no say in it. If the feeling moves me, you will have no choice in the matter.

 

Don’t insult me by calling me an ‘arsonist’. I am much more complex than that. I am a pyro-technician with extraordinary skill. I am a tactician; an expert with surgical precision that will take your heart and soul before you realize it. And by then, it’s already too late!

 

But, don’t take it personally. I don’t know anything about you; other than you are too weak and scared to deal with the likes of me. You are just another target in a career that spans two decades and is littered with victims too numerous to count.

 

I’m sorry; did I say ‘victim’? I meant to say ‘adversary’. And I’m not sorry, either!

 

So; aren’t you the least bit curious as to what’s in store for you? Do you want to know how you will die?

 

You will die for 69 cents!

 

That’s correct; 69 lousy cents. Figure it out?

 

That’s the cost of a disposable lighter! Ain’t that a hoot?

 

In your mind, your life is precious and valuable-‘so much left to do’. You have a family, a community and a God to serve…and I could give a rat’s patoot. You’re not valuable; you’re vulnerable. Your life isn’t precious; to me, it isn’t worth the price of a disposable, cigarette lighter.

 

You’re upsetting me right now, because you think so highly of yourself that you show me no respect; yet, I hold your life in my hands. Me!

 

You think that I’m just some kook who gets his jollies from setting fires? You couldn’t be more wrong. I don’t even stay to watch them burn, because I already know the outcome and besides; I have to get ready for the next one. I won’t watch the news or read the papers; I don’t have to. Everyone will be talking about it. ‘Did you hear about the terrible fire? How tragic; an entire family died. No one knows how it happened’.

 

I don’t normally tell war stories, but a couple of years ago, I did a mobile home fire. Keep in mind, I got my information second hand from the people who talked about it, but they said it was pretty gruesome. The mobile home had a skirt around it and they had placed bales of straw around the trailer to insulate it from the cold, I guess and it was heated with LP from a big tank at the back of their property. Anyway, one early morning, I disconnected the LP connection at the trailer and was pumping it in under the trailer and then lit a bale of straw just before I left. I mean; trailers are like gas cans anyway, but people said that when it exploded, it jumped about four feet off of its foundation. The fire burnt so hot that the six bodies were unrecognizable. In fact; people were talking about how some of the bodies were found sort of stuck together. You couldn’t tell where one ended and another started. Kind of like a ‘human clinker’. Apparently, the trailer was owned by a couple of meth heads, so the locals thought that they had a cooking accident while making meth. And who was I to convince them otherwise?

 

Do you know that by the time that black, acrid smoke gets its hands around your throat, paralyzing you to the point that you can’t scream and you can’t move that you will still be able to hear and feel your flesh burning? A light bulb starts to melt at about 600 degrees; flesh burns to well done! And…the fire will sear your pores shut and your organs will boil from the inside out. And do you know what your final thought on this Earth will be?

 

‘I can’t believe I wasted all of that money on that sophisticated alarm system’! Sorry; but a ‘kook’ finds that funny.

 

Have you figured it out yet, Einstein? Figured out that I don’t fit the ‘profile’? Cops and so-called ‘arson investigators’ are always looking for cookie cutter culprits. They try to match up their crappy, textbook data, written by ‘experts’ with whoever fits into their ‘definition’.

 

Power, rage, sexual gratification, hero worship-‘yep; we got our guy, because he fits the profile!’

 

I didn’t wet the bed. I didn’t hate my parents. I didn’t start fires as a kid. I had a normal pre-adult life. I don’t drink alcohol. I have no failed relationships.

 

Oh; you think it’s about ‘power’? Is it because I write the rules that control the situation? Well, if you’re that one dimensional, then go ahead and believe it. And I will prove you ‘dead’ wrong.

 

I’m guessing that a lot of firesetters are still in business, because the cops have a very narrow focus, but that’s OK. It lets me fly below the radar. And though I resent someone else getting the credit for my work, I will bear that burden for the chance to strike again…and I will!

 

I might set a diversionary fire that will kick the fire department’s butt. They will commit all of their resources to it. They might order a call back of off-duty personnel, but really; many of them will be hung over, tired and ticked off because their personal time was interrupted. They won’t be in the right frame of mind to deal with me. A false alarm will get called in by a ‘passer-by’ and that’s when I will cut your phone service, disable your alarm system and exact my will upon you.

 

You can’t prepare for it. You can’t ‘get ready’…because I’m coming. And there is nothing you can do to stop it!

 

I have my target in sight.

 

Failure is not an option.

 

The Face of Fear is coming to Grandview!

 

Stew Monihan, Grandview FD’s ace arson investigator is teaching an arson class.

 

“Can anyone tell me what can be a fire investigator’s two, worst enemies?” asks Stew. “Vinnie?”

 

“Is one of them an arsonist?” asks Vinnie.

 

“No, but we’ll get to that later on”, says Stew.

 

“At the scene of a fire investigation, too much water and aggressive over-haul can sometimes leave little for the investigator. Some of you may want to remember that when you’re on the pipe. If you ever make it to ‘Investigation’, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about”, says Stew.

 

“Stew; when you get to a cause of ‘suspicious origin’, do you start going through your Rolodex of known arsonists?” asks Jimmy Mac.

 

“That’s a good question, Mac, but the rule of thumb is that, unless you can eliminate all of the ‘accidental’ causes, then you cannot classify the fire as incendiary. You have to review, then toss out all of the impossible causes and that narrows the probable causes. So, you look at electrical systems, electrical equipment, gas hook ups, the presence of pets, paint equipment/supplies, heater units, solar energy, lightning, children, smoking materials and even hay and hay storage for our friends of agriculture. Any possibility should be explored. There can be accidental ignitions from unusual sources, but in order for a fire to occur, there must be an ignition source and combustible material. Common ignition sources are well established and can be traced to their location in a building. Then, you consider the probability of it being a viable ignition source. And this is where your training will start. Then, we will discuss the fire’s behavior-the color of the smoke, direction of travel, intensity-odors, the condition of the contents (some products have known burn times), doors and windows (entry/exit points and if they have been forced or not), familiar faces at the scene, interested by-standers or other suspicious circumstances. From there, we will review arson patterns and arsonist profiles”, says Stew.

 

“Aren’t serial arsons rare?” asks Vinnie.

 

“Not as rare as they used to be, but just because a perp sets more than one fire doesn’t mean that he’s a serial arsonist. There has to be some criteria matched in order to classify them as a serial arsonist”, says Stew.

 

“Have you ever investigated a serial arson?” asks Vinnie.

 

“Yes…and it almost drove me over the edge. Because the fires come so fast, you can’t eat, sleep or think about anything else. It affects you at work, at home, the gas station, the ball game-people are screaming at you to catch the guy, because they don’t want to be next”, says Stew.

 

“We’ll get to the arsonists soon enough, but first; you have to learn how to rule it in or out. That’s it for today. See you next week”, says Stew.

 

Stew got home just in time to grab a beer and turn on the Red Sox/Yankees game. Stew was 3 beers into the game and nodded off.

 

He woke up, wringing with sweat. His heart felt like it was going to bust out of his chest. He looked around the room, momentarily forgetting where he was. He’d been dreaming about HIS arsonist again.

 

What Stew didn’t know was that his “dream” was about to come true…again!

 

Sleep well, kiddies.

 

The article submitted is a fictional account of events-real or imagined. Any similarities to the people, places or situations portrayed are purely coincidental. The article as submitted is published under The Adventures of Jake and Vinnie© umbrella and is the intellectual property of Art Goodrich a.k.a. xchief22 and ChiefReason. It is protected by federal copyright laws and cannot be re-printed in any form without expressed permission from the author.

Posted by chiefreason on July 19, 2009 • Filed under: The Adventures of Jake and Vinnie • Tagged: , , ,

Forward Progress on ‘Reverse’ Discrimination

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First of all, I detest the use of the term ‘reverse discrimination’.

 

Why is it that, when a non-white, gay or female believes that they were treated unfairly, it is discrimination?

 

But, when a Caucasian male believes the same, it is reverse discrimination?

 

If we are all created equal and I believe that we are, then how can discrimination be ‘different’ for whites?

 

Where professional, performance-based standards are involved, then shouldn’t the playing field be level for everyone? That is to say that, in the fire service, the multiple tasks required to safely perform the job and their resulting consequences, good and bad are no different for ANYONE. You must force doors, carry hose, rescue people twice your size, scale ladders, wear 40 pounds of gear and an encyclopedia of other tasks; not to mention getting each other out of harm’s way.

 

I sit here befuddled that there hasn’t been more discussion and especially since it has been said the “historically, it has been the common practice of the fire service to discriminate”!

 

Ricci v Destefano was not going to derail Sotomayor’s confirmation for U.S. Supreme Court justice, but it should serve as a reminder to cities who still believe that hiring and promoting to achieve diversity goals by denying the rights of others is neither safe nor smart.

 

There should only be ONE pool of candidates, regardless of race, color, gender or religion. Hiring and promotions should go to the most qualified…period.

 

Before Firefighter Frank Ricci testified at Sotomayor’s confirmation hearing, efforts were made to discredit and lionize him, because this wasn’t Ricci’s first rodeo.

 

In 1995, Ricci sued the City of New Haven, CT for not hiring him, claiming that he wasn’t hired because he told them that he had dyslexia. The suit was settled in 1997 when he was hired by New Haven.

 

In 1998, Ricci filed an appeal to his firing from Middletown’s South Fire District, claiming that it was in retaliation for his investigation of a very controversial fire.

 

In some circles, Ricci was being accused of ‘faking’ his dyslexia to gain advantage.

 

So, why was Ricci being singled out and attacked when Michael Blatchley, Greg Boivin, Gary Carbone, Michael Christoforo, Ryan Divito, Steven Durand, William Gambardella, Brian Jooss, James Kottage, Matthew Marcarelli, Thomas J. Michaels, Sean Patton, Christopher Parker, Edward Riordan, Kevin Roxbee, Timothy Scanlon, Benjamin Vargas, John Vendetto and Mark Vendetto were all parties to the Destefano and City of New Haven lawsuit?

 

Because, if one didn’t take the time to read the record, you could erroneously conclude that he was an opportunist.

 

I think that his personal battles embody the temperament needed to be a firefighter.

 

In fact, I would go so far as to say that Frank Ricci is the “Everyman” of the fire service.

 

He didn’t use his disability (dyslexia) to create an advantage; he succeeded in spite of it.

 

And though much was made of it by those on the left (according to Ricci), I believe that Ricci was raised just like you and I were. I was taught to always fight for what I believed in and if I believed that I was right let nothing change my mind. That’s not to say that it didn’t get me into some trouble from time to time, but I still hold true to that belief to this day.

 

Frank Ricci prevailed each time someone challenged his rights and that is exactly how the justice system is supposed to work.

 

What is troublesome is that we have a U.S. Supreme Court nominee who holds that only minorities can be discriminated against and that somehow, it should provide for certain advantages.

 

I might be wrong, but I thought that the Civil Rights Act and especially Title VII was enacted to eliminate advantages and to allow the disadvantaged equal protection under the law.

 

Sotomayor’s stories of growing up in the Bronx are noteworthy, but far from extraordinary. It should be the center of her humility, but in no way should it serve as her perspective in matters that come before the court, because if she doesn’t know it by now, there are a lot of “Frank Riccis” out there!

 

I am not interested in her making history.

 

I am only interested in her making good decisions with regards to the law.

 

The fire service must continue to test to performance and resist grading “on the curve”.

 

Where lives depend upon having the most qualified firefighters, there is no room for social experiments.

 

And to those of you who are reading this and fail to see how Sotomayor may impact our fire service in the future?

 

Two things, in my opinion: 1) She didn’t appreciate the smack down from the Supreme Court on her decision to deny a rehearing in Ricci v Destefano and 2) She will rise up against the fire service that has “historically engaged in discrimination”.

 

Remember; you read it here first!

 

Here are some relevant links: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/71660.html

 

http://www.slate.com/id/2222087/

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090629/ap_on_go_su_co/us_supreme_court_firefighters_lawsuit

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/16/AR2009071603090.html?wprss=rss_politics

 

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/08pdf/07-1428.pdf

 

TCSS.

 

The article as submitted is published under The Adventures of Jake and Vinnie© umbrella and is the intellectual property of Art Goodrich a.k.a. xchief22 and ChiefReason. It is protected by federal copyright laws and cannot be re-printed in any form without expressed permission from the author. You may read other works by the author at www.chiefreasonart.com.

Posted by chiefreason on July 18, 2009 • Filed under: My Size Up • Tagged: , , ,

What’s Your EAP…For a TREE FROG?

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At 0830 hours this morning, we had an emergency at my house.

 

I had just exited the shower and was drying off when I heard Mrs. Reason say, “Art; get in here!”

 

“Here” was in the bedroom.

 

Instinctively, my shoulders slouched inward and my chin fell to my chest, because, well; I am usually beckoned because I’ve done something wrong. Besides; as a seasoned veteran, you “just know”!

 

“What is it?” I said in mock surprise.

 

“There is a TOAD climbing up the wall in here”, she said with utter disbelief.

 

Now; I think that we can all agree here that a toad could NOT climb a wall without proper rope, carabiners and anchors!

 

Unable to get dressed, I fashioned my towel into a kilt.

 

I got to the bedroom, mostly out of curiosity and saw a TREE FROG climbing across the top of the “D” side wall, according to my 360 degree size up.

 

To establish my command, I said very forcefully, “That is a tree frog and not a toad. Toads cannot climb anything higher than their body’s length.

 

“How do you know it’s a tree frog?” she asked.

 

“Because their skin is camouflaged to resemble tree bark. It’s part of their defense mechanism”, I said.

 

Since I had no gloves, I told Mrs. Reason to go and get me two sandwich bags (adapt and overcome).

 

She started to question me, but I cut her off, told her that I was in charge and to ‘just do it’.

 

While she was gone, I took off my towel (kilt) and attempted to knock it off the ceiling. The frog fell behind her shoe rack and then scurried under her dresser. Plan B was now in effect.

 

“Bring a flashlight too”, I yelled.

 

She came back with my sandwich bags, flashlight, a bucket and a broom. I’ll explain later.

 

To move the dresser safely, we first removed its six drawers.

 

There the little fella was; all hunkered down near the mopboard.

 

Because I didn’t know the species of this particular tree frog and having no desire to hallucinate from touching it, I placed a sandwich bag over each hand and slowly and methodically and with the precision of a neurosurgeon, captured him in my right hand, cupping it with my left hand.

 

With the threat now mitigated, I showed Mrs. Reason the frog’s skin that indeed resembled tree bark and also showed her its feet that enabled it to climb.

 

With biology class concluded, I took the tree frog outside and released it. While standing there watching it, I asked, “How would a tree frog get into our bedroom?”

 

She said, “I thought that you were playing a joke on me with one of those novelty frogs that you throw against the wall and they crawl down the wall, but when I saw it climb UP the wall, I knew that it wasn’t a joke!”

 

“OK, Einstein; first of all, I was in the shower. The law of physics says that I couldn’t possibly throw a frog from the bathroom, down the hallway, through a door that was almost shut and onto the top of your bedroom wall!” I explained.

 

“Well, then how did it get into the bedroom?” she asked.

 

I said, “I think it was a ‘frog on a dog’ caper. He hitched a ride on Chopper and into the house”.

 

She said, “I think that it came through the open garage door”.

 

“Even if it got into the garage, how did it get through TWO walk-in doors? Don’t you think that we would have seen a tree frog sauntering through the house?” I pressed.

 

“Well, we wouldn’t have seen it if he’d stayed up high”, she exclaimed.

 

“Oh; sort of like a ‘ninja’ tree frog”, I said while trying not to laugh.

 

“Yeah; something like that”, she said.

 

“Nope; I’m sticking to the ‘frog on a dog’ theory”, I proffered.

 

Now, to me, since weirdness has always been a big part of my life, you might think that a tree frog, just out of the blue, winds up in your bedroom would be weird.

 

Uh-Uh!

 

The weird part is that I can’t remember if I had pants on when I took the frog outside!

 

And what about the bucket and the broom?

 

She said that she was going to “sweep the frog into the bucket”!

 

Rookie!

 

TCSS.

Art

 

The article as submitted is published under The Adventures of Jake and Vinnie© umbrella and is the intellectual property of Art Goodrich a.k.a. xchief22 and ChiefReason. It is protected by federal copyright laws and cannot be re-printed in any form without expressed permission from the author. You may read other works by the author at www.chiefreasonart.com

Posted by chiefreason on July 15, 2009 • Filed under: Miscellaneous • Tagged: , , ,

FIRE Act; Time to Cut and Run?

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After reading Mike Ward’s latest blog and an article that he highlighted (http://www.heritage.org/Research/Economy/upload/wm_2499.pdf), the little guy in my head got busy.

 

First of all, I am one of those who have felt strongly that fire departments should be a local issue. I have never held that local fire departments should be subsidized by the federal government because as we have seen with the “stimulus” money, the money comes with strings attached.

 

But, like so many others, I feel that, if my tax dollars are going to pay for someone else’s fire department, then I might as well be one of those other fire departments.

 

When FIRE Act first hit the scene in 2001, I honestly thought that our most destitute departments would be getting money.

 

Then, when I read down the names of successful fire departments, it read like a “who’s who”. Many names did not strike me as “destitute”.

 

I inquired and was told that it was a “competitive” grant. Oh, so if I can find the winning combination of data and blah-blah, I could ‘win’ a grant?

 

So far, we have only been successful in 2007. The funny thing is that we were awarded a grant for (12) SCBAs. Last year, we applied for the air compressor to fill them and were rejected. It doesn’t make any sense, but I digress.

 

Again, though I feel that funding should be a local issue, I have to take exception to Muhlhausen’s reasoning for discontinuing the program.

 

It is his contention that the program be ended because it has not reduced civilian and firefighter injuries or deaths. That isn’t exactly true and it would depend on whose data you use.

 

I found a study at the FEMA website that captures this information. NFPA and NIOSH are slightly different with their totals.

 

Muhlhausen might have a valid point were it not for the fact that heart attacks have been and continues to be the #1 killer of firefighters. From 2001 – 2007, heart attacks accounted for 48% of all firefighter fatalities.

 

Let’s compare 2001-the first year of the Act-to 2007.

 

In 2001, there were 1,734,500 fires; 3,745 civilian deaths; 20,300 civilian injuries; $10.5 billion in property losses; 105 firefighter deaths and 41,395 firefighter injuries. Note that 2001 doesn’t reflect the events of the 9/11 attacks.

 

In 2007, there were 1,557,500 fires; 3,430 civilian deaths; 17,675 civilian injuries; $14.6 billion in property losses; 118 firefighter deaths and 38,340 firefighter injuries.

 

If you average the years (2001 – 2006), you would see that: prior to 2007, we averaged 1,633,583 fires; 3,645 civilian deaths; 18,175 civilian injuries; $10.8 billion in property losses; 110 firefighter deaths and 40,057 firefighter injuries.

 

In 2007, by category, there was a 5% decrease in the number of fires; 6% decrease in civilian deaths; 3% decrease in civilian injuries; 26% increase in property losses; 7% increase in firefighter deaths and 4% decrease in firefighter injuries.

 

So, Muhlhausen’s conclusion that the FIRE Act program has not reduced fire casualties is not accurate and is not consistent with the program’s original, stated purpose.

 

In addition, Muhlhausen’s conclusion that the FIRE Act program is ineffective is flawed, because, clearly, he hasn’t spoken to the departments who have gotten the grant.

 

Though I don’t believe that the program is ineffective, it is certainly somewhat frustrating because you are not provided with an explanation as to why your grant application was denied. Were we to know that, it would enhance our chances of writing a more compelling grant and improve our chances of being successful.

 

What is clear after you read Muhlhausen’s article is that you cannot rest a decision to discontinue the program upon numbers alone.

 

How is it that you can look at FIRE Act and see the difference that it has made to local fire departments and believe that the money given to banks, insurance companies and car companies will make them more “effective”?

 

Don’t be ridiculous!

 

TCSS.

Art

 

The article as submitted is published under The Adventures of Jake and Vinnie© umbrella and is the intellectual property of Art Goodrich a.k.a. xchief22 and ChiefReason. It is protected by federal copyright laws and cannot be re-printed in any form without expressed permission from the author. You may read other works by the author at www.chiefreasonart.com

Posted by chiefreason on July 6, 2009 • Filed under: My Size Up • Tagged: , , , ,

New Haven/New Hope

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I enjoy stories with a happy ending. I like it when the good guys win and send the bad guys into retreat, to jail or to their graves. It panders to our most basic, human emotions.

 

On the flip side, I like suspense. I am riveted to the screen to see if the killer is under the bed, behind the curtain, in the closet or in the next room. Will the killer get his chance or will the babysitter be distracted, slip from his grip or die at his hands?

 

In every movie as in our lives, we live out a certain “justice” every day. We may get what we deserve, we may get a second chance, we might be judged for what we did or spend our time building our case to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that we were righteous, honest and beyond reproach.

 

We will cultivate an existence with lessons learned, peer pressure, the rule of law and tempered with common sense and common decency; where hard work is rewarded and cheaters are caught and exposed.

 

Color will be discussed when selecting a sofa, car or paint for the house. It will have no basis for determining our place in Society. Color will not be used for inclusion or exclusion. It will be a de facto non-factor. It will not bring advantage or disadvantage. It will be somewhere in a broad spectrum of human kind that is populated by uniquely different cultures.

 

I followed the case of the New Haven, Connecticut firefighters who filed a lawsuit after the promotion test that they took was thrown out because the city feared lawsuits by African-American firefighters. Apparently, the city failed to gauge the repercussions from those who passed the exam.

 

To make matters worse, the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the city’s right to throw out the test results because it did not meet certain diversity goals, so Frank Ricci and the other firefighters who passed filed an appeal. Based on the court’s reasoning, it was obvious even to novices that it stood a good chance of being overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court and it was.

 

It took five and a half years and who knows how much money for a reasonable decision to be made. Diversity should never be the sole reason to deny or to achieve promotion. If the playing field is level and the testing is non-biased, then the results should be used when deciding the best candidates for promotion. If it isn’t, then so many issues come to bear; most notably whether or not the person can lead. A written test by itself should not be the only factor, but a written test should set a base line and from there other testing tools should be used to complete the promotions process.

 

In Tuesday’s USA Today, there was an editorial that discussed the paper’s point of view(http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/06/our-view-firefighters-ruling-draws-new-lines-on-race-and-hiring.html#more)  and an opposing view offered by Michael Rosman(http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/06/opposing-view-make-race-irrelevant—-not-every-workplace-can-end-up-looking-like-america–by-michael-e-rosman–mondays-de.html#more) .

 

I don’t have a particular problem with “assessment centers”, as long as everyone is given the same information and are required to do the same evolutions. I am for whatever places the best candidates at the top of the list and is not manipulated to give any, one group an advantage or disadvantage. I want the promotions process to discriminate, but only where it is between the qualified and the unqualified. I am for the candidate that can demonstrate solid leadership skills and has the loyalty and respect of their firefighters.

 

It is time that we stop considering the “what ifs” of equal opportunity and realize that fairness should be a part of that process. It is not fair to an ethnic group that they are denied equal opportunity because of skin color – whites included. It is unfair to the community to place men and women into positions where their skills were compromised to meet equal opportunity. It is unfair to the firefighters if their leaders are not the best and brightest because a certain percentage or ratios had to be met under “equal” opportunity language.

 

Bad things can happen when our people are not qualified; be it firefighter or officer. Lives are at stake and there is no room for mediocrity. If the fire service is indeed a “para-military” organization, then we must recognize that only the smartest and the strongest are going to lead.

 

I will close with Justice Potter Stewart’s views on race discrimination as he applied it to Minnick vs. California Department of Corrections (Bold for emphasis):

JUSTICE STEWART, dissenting.

I would not dismiss the writ of certiorari. I would, to the contrary, reverse the judgment before us because the California Court of Appeal has wrongly held that the State may consider a person’s race in making promotion decisions. [Footnote 2/1]

So far as the Constitution goes, a private person may engage in any racial discrimination he wants, cf. Steelworkers v. Weber, 443 U. S. 193, but, under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, a sovereign State may never do so. [Footnote 2/2] And it is wholly irrelevant whether the State gives a “plus” or “minus” value to a person’s race, whether the discrimination occurs in a decision to hire or fire or promote, or whether the discrimination is called “affirmative action” or by some less euphemistic term. [Footnote 2/3]

A year ago, I stated my understanding of the Constitution in this respect, and I repeat now a little of what I said then:

“The equal protection standard of the Constitution has one clear and central meaning — it absolutely prohibits invidious discrimination by government. That standard must be met by every State under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. . . .”

“* * * *”

“Under our Constitution, the government may never act to the detriment of a person solely because of that person’s race. The color of a person’s skin and the country

Page 452 U. S. 129

of his origin are immutable facts that bear no relation to ability, disadvantage, moral culpability, or any other characteristics of constitutionally permissible interest to government. . . . In short, racial discrimination is, by definition, invidious discrimination.”

“The rule cannot be any different when the persons injured . . . are not members of a racial minority. . . .”

“* * * *”

“. . . Most importantly, by making race a relevant criterion, . . . the Government implicitly teaches the public that the apportionment of rewards and penalties can legitimately be made according to race — rather than according to merit or ability — and that people can, and perhaps should, view themselves and others in terms of their racial characteristics. . . .”

“There are those who think that we need a new Constitution, and their views may someday prevail. But under the Constitution we have, one practice in which government may never engage is the practice of racism. . . .”

Fullilove v. Klutznick, 448 U. S. 448, 448 U. S. 523, 448 U. S. 525-526, 448 U. S. 532 (dissenting opinion) (footnote omitted) .

I respectfully dissent.

TCSS.

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Posted by chiefreason on July 3, 2009 • Filed under: My Size Up • Tagged: , ,