From the New York Times, an update on the Vulcan Society disparate impact discrimination lawsuit filed by the Bush Administration (thanks, Alberto!):
In a lacerating decision that accused Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of willfully ignoring the racial imbalance in the New York Fire Department, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday that a court-appointed monitor would be installed to oversee the department’s recruitment efforts and ensure that more minority candidates are hired.
The decision by the judge, Nicholas G. Garaufis of Federal District Court in Brooklyn, comes at the end of four years of bitter litigation in which the city and the Fire Department stood accused of allowing the department to remain almost 97 percent white for decades, despite the fact that the city’s population is about 25 percent black.
Judge Garaufis has been revealing himself to be an innumerate fool for a couple of years now, but do you think anybody he knows has ever pointed this out to him? There is no shame in our society for being a certain kind of idiot. He, in fact, gives off repeated hints that he's immensely proud of himself.
The judge's latest decision is a case study in disparate impact reasoning, such as it is.
The one interesting thing is a footnote showing that while blacks make up 3.8% of the FDNY, blacks make up 61.4% of the Corrections Department. Why no disparate impact study of that department, where blacks are wildly overrepresented? (Presumably, blacks like working for a black-dominated department where you don't have to run into burning buildings, the technical knowledge requirements are lower, and maybe there are more chances for graft.)
The decision by the judge, Nicholas G. Garaufis of Federal District Court in Brooklyn, comes at the end of four years of bitter litigation in which the city and the Fire Department stood accused of allowing the department to remain almost 97 percent white for decades, despite the fact that the city’s population is about 25 percent black.
ReplyDeleteWhat percentage of NYC judges are black?
The whole point of the Civil Rights movement was "screw Straight White Males." That is what society is built on. Everyone, gays, White women, Blacks, Hispanics gets in on the act. That's the whole point.
ReplyDeleteSomeone should sue the NFL and NBA for discrimination against White guys.
Assume that in order to get more of a racial balance in the FDNY that the next batch of fire fighters has to have an IQ lower than the last batch.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the effect of lower IQ among firefighters?
Of course higher iq is better than lower iq, but really, how many more people will die each year due to lower IQ fire fighters?
Steve said: Why no disparate impact study of that department, where blacks are wildly overrepresented?
ReplyDeleteHunsdon replies: Ratchets only work one way. (Yes, I know a rhetorical question when I see one, but still.)
Just curious, Steve. I just linked to that Times article in a comment to you last post. Is it little old me who led you to it?
ReplyDeleteThe below has been disparately-impacting the ol' USA for years and years:
ReplyDelete"In Los Angeles, 63 percent of postal workers are black, whereas blacks represent only 9.6 percent of the [LA] labor force. In Chicago, blacks, who make up only 18.2 percent of the labor pool, constitue 79.7 percent of postal workers." [source, data from 1994].
Oh, Steve!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete"In Los Angeles, 63 percent of postal workers are black, whereas blacks represent only 9.6 percent of the [LA] labor force. In Chicago, blacks, who make up only 18.2 percent of the labor pool, constitue 79.7 percent of postal workers." [source, data from 1994].
Any in Silicon Valley a very large percentage of USPS workers are Asian (Chinese and Vietnamese.)
Well, there goes your chances of selling iSteve.com for the big bucks.
ReplyDeleteSarah Palin announces to the shock of no one who knows anything about her character that she won't running.
ReplyDeleteI'm conservative and do not like Palin, she's trashy.
Simple solution: require firefighters to carry loaded handguns while on duty. Since no one in the civil rights movement wants their fellow blacks anywhere near small arms (and rightly so, according to the Founders), they'll drop the lawsuits in no time.
ReplyDeleteBut what about those Corrections officers? Aren't they armed already.
Yes, but they're already in prison!
.
And the Transit Department? Last time I was in New York it seems there were dozens and dozens of transit workers standing around not being of much use, and they were 100% black.
ReplyDeleteBlacks like to work in Corrections because they see so many friends and relatives among their clientele.
ReplyDeleteOf course higher iq is better than lower iq, but really, how many more people will die each year due to lower IQ fire fighters?
ReplyDeleteAdd in the cost of greater property losses, the net increase in dead firemen, cost of turnover of non-hackers and anti-social types. Years on this degraded talent base becomes management, making a less capable and honest, therefore more expensive department.
And f--- em anyway: it's unfair.
Thanks for the link to the judge's order. I found two parts particularly interesting.
ReplyDeleteFirst, at page 25 the judge says that the City must not screen criminals out of the firefighter hiring process because that disadvantages black candidates (judge wrote "misuse" (meaning, apparently, proper use) of arrest information in making decisions regarding candidate's character and fitness to be a firefighter would disproportionately disadvantage black firefighter candidates).
That's sweet, considering firefighters gain access to homes and businesses all the time, partly when summoned to emergencies, of course, but frequently on inspection visits as well. If the FDNY can't screen criminals out of the hiring process there will be a lot more incidents of theft, assault, "casing the joint" for crooked-firefighters' burglarious relatives and friends, etc-etc.
Second, on page 23 the judge congratulates the special master Mary Jo White he appointed for "develop[ing] a firefighter examination [Exam 2000] that--unlike recent firefighter examinations--actually identifies the candidates most qualified to be hired for the position of entry level firefighter." The judge burbles on for a while in that vein, mixing snark with smarm, but Exam 2000 isn't scheduled be administered until 2012.
So, I wonder, what will the judge say when Exam 2000 has disparate impact too? (Or if it doesn't, that's only because it is obviously rigged or transparently useless?)
"In Los Angeles, 63 percent of postal workers are black, whereas blacks represent only 9.6 percent of the [LA] labor force. In Chicago, blacks, who make up only 18.2 percent of the labor pool, constitute 79.7 percent of postal workers."
ReplyDeleteUSPS proposed cutting 120,000 jobs and reducing benefits bonanza. I am willing to bet that congress will effectively bail it out instead of approving the proposals. Any takers?
...willfully ignoring the racial imbalance in the New York Fire Department...
ReplyDeleteHe hasn't, however, "willfully ignored the racial imbalance" of the rest of NYC. The guy gets no credit.
What percentage of NYC judges are black?
ReplyDeleteBy my viewing of TV & movies, about 100%.
Well, like Justice Scalia recently said, federal judges ain't what they used to be.
ReplyDeleteWhite firemen get much more money, prestige and hot women than they deserve. I won't cry for them. But what should make us all mad is that our taxes PAID for this bullshit lawsuit.
ReplyDeleteGood idea, Steve. You've introduced the "holistic" notion into the field of disparate impact analysis. Since it's a hippy concept, Libs can't complain, right?
ReplyDelete"Sarah Palin announces to the shock of no one who knows anything about her character that she won't running.
ReplyDeleteI'm conservative and do not like Palin, she's trashy."
This woman should be ashamed of herself for abandoning her post as a governor, on what was really nothing more than a whim. That she received no real criticism shows how standards of civic duty have fallen. There really are few adults left in the room.
Just curious Anon conservative, did you see Palin as trashy before the Glenn Rice disclosure?
ReplyDeletewell, you know the rules. anything can be too european. but nothing can be too (fill in the blank with any other group).
ReplyDeleteMaybe the corrections department hires are supposed to be proportional to the demographics of the people who go through corrections.
ReplyDeleteOf course higher iq is better than lower iq, but really, how many more people will die each year due to lower IQ fire fighters?
ReplyDeleteWho knows? Let's try it and find out!
>how many more people will die each year due to lower IQ fire fighters?<
ReplyDeleteHow about lower-IQ police officers?
Lower-IQ DMV workers?
Lower-IQ EMT workers?
Lower-IQ customer service reps?
Lower-IQ collectors?
Lower-IQ management of all businesses (hell, that won't kill anyone, right)?
Lower-IQ construction workers?
Yeah, we don't really need so much IQ. Everyone knows IQ is only for fancy things like protein-folding and moon shots. [/sarcasm]
"(Presumably, blacks like working for a black-dominated department where you don't have to run into burning buildings, the technical knowledge requirements are lower, and maybe there are more chances for graft.)"
ReplyDeleteAlso, it's funny to watch white men get sodomized. Amiri Baraka; Eldridge Cleaver
A little HBD, a little game, not too many surprises:
ReplyDeletehttp://ourtaxdollarsatwork.wordpress.com/2011/03/20/sex-starved-female-guards-having-sex-with-inmates-at-rikers-island-new-york-jail/
"not a hacker said...
ReplyDeleteJust curious Anon conservative, did you see Palin as trashy before the Glenn Rice disclosure?"
Well, having a one-night stand with a basket-ball player IS almost a definition of trashiness, so I see nothing wrong with Anon conservative's point, even if he did.