More Queen City Jazz

From John C.'s email to my annoyance and your screens, by way of the Cincinnati Enquirer:

Police discipline unequal

Records show blacks get more punishment
By Robert Anglen

For years, Cincinnati's African-American police officers have been subjected to more discipline and harsher penalties than white officers.

Even though African-Americans make up 29 percent of the department, a Cincinnati Enquirer analysis of police records between 1997 and 2001 shows that blacks got more than half of all serious disciplines.

Records show that black officers were more likely to be terminated than whites during that period and their suspensions accounted for nearly two-thirds of the total hours in punishment handed down by supervisors. Records also show that some white officers received less punishment than blacks for similar violations.

[. . .] This doesn't surprise African-American police officers and activists, who say the numbers show a pattern of discrimination that police administrators for more than three decades have dismissed merely as anecdotal.

Nor does it surprise police union officials. They say their attempts to raise concerns about racial disparity in the department have been ignored, resulting in an unfair discipline process that allows some officers to be treated differently than others.

“No, I'm not surprised by it. It upsets me. It has upset me for years,” says Fraternal Order of Police lawyer Don Hardin. “I know there is a disparity problem in the department, and just one of those disparities is race.”

Emphasis, as ever, added, because it amuses me. Not sure how the warbloggers will react to this one. I mean, on the one hand, police. On the other hand, it's a union, and a lawyer.

On their site, the Fraternal Order of Police avoid the word "union" on the front page, except for a headline from a linked Wall Street Journal article. On the history page, they note:

Martin Toole and Delbert Nagle knew they must first organize police officers, like other labor interests, if they were to be successful in making life better for themselves and their fellow police officers. They and 21 others "who were willing to take a chance" met on May 14, 1915, and held the first meeting of the Fraternal Order of Police. They formed Fort Pitt Lodge #1. They decided on this name due to the anti-union sentiment of the time. However, there was no mistaking their intentions.

Heh. "anti-union sentiment of the time". Yeah, things have gotten so much better.

Could discuss the complex interplay of race and class, but I'm easily distracted by shiny things, and feel I've said it all before.

Check out the article: there are some stats and anecdotal evidence I see no reason to copy over here.

Want to know more? Well, there's nothing specifically about this on the National Black Police Association site at the moment, but they do have a list of career opportunities.

Ooo, United States Capitol Police. That's almost worth applying for just to see the look on the face of the guy who does the background check. . .