A Disqualification For Government Service

In the metroplex Texas city of Grand Prairie, five police department employees have been placed on administrative leave -- four police officers and a dispatcher. The department's chief is now deciding whether the five employees should be fired or retained.

The employees are accused of using department computers to forward a racist e-mail. Sadly, this is happening after the department had "sensitivity training" only two years ago. The questionable e-mail "included a racist reference to the tail number on Air Force One and suggested that Obama will serve only one term because a black man can't hold a job longer than four years." The five were placed on leave for using a city-owned computer for personal use.

Although the e-mail originated from an outside source, these employees forwarded it among themselves. Police spokesman John Brimmer said, "These are some good officers who have worked at the department for a long time that made a serious lapse in judgment. You can't do much about an unsolicited e-mail, but what you do after you open it is on you."

The vice-president of the local NAACP chapter, Preston Dixon, went further saying, "If they view our nation's top officer as an N-word, what do they think about the average black citizen in the community? Since they've gone through diversity training, then they knew better and should be fired."

The question is, should they be fired? I agree with Preston Dixon. The five employees should be fired, but not for personal use of a city computer. That's a fairly minor offense, and could be dealt with with a warning or a write-up. What they should be fired for is their racist attitude.

I have spent most of my adult life in some form of law enforcement -- six years as an officer and supervisor at a college in a particularly rough part of a major city, eight years as a correctional officer and another twelve years working for both adult and juvenile parole. I don't believe I could have done any of those jobs properly if I had been a racist.

In fact, I will broaden that view. I don't think a racist can properly do any government job that requires contact with the public, whether on a local, state or national level. Government workers must treat everyone the same -- no matter their race, ethnicity, sex, religion, age or sexual preference. And it is extremely hard to keep your prejudice out of your work.

There are lots of jobs a racist can probably do, but government service dealing with the public is not one of them. Racism should be an automatic disqualification.