The Biden-Harris Department of Justice has launched multiple lawsuits against local police and fire departments, claiming that requiring public safety hires to demonstrate basic math skills is racist.
The lawsuits undermine Kamala Harris’s attempts to brand herself as a moderate in the final weeks of the presidential campaign, with the suits both suggesting a dim view of blacks by the administration and employing the theory of “disparate impact,” the radical theory that holds that anytime there are statistical racial disparities, racism must be the cause — even if no one can explain how.
On Friday, the DOJ’s civil rights unit filed a lawsuit against South Bend, Indiana, saying “South Bend uses a written examination that discriminates against Black applicants and a physical fitness test that discriminates against female applicants.”
But that was just one of the lawsuits, which claim that tests are racist because blacks fail them at a higher percentage than whites, and require cash awards to be paid to those blacks who failed them. Most blacks generally pass the tests, and the lawsuits do not explain how the tests can be racist against only some blacks. Blacks who passed the tests are excluded from the financial payouts.
Last week, Durham, North Carolina settled with the DOJ, saying blacks failed the tests required to become a firefighter more often, and “Employers should identify and eliminate practices that have a disparate impact based on race.” It said the Durham Fire Department must pay nearly a million dollars to people who failed the test and hire up to 16 of them.
While the DOJ said the tests were irrelevant to being a good firefighter, an online practice test suggests that it is directly relevant, that people could die if such firefighters were hired. One question asks if a building is 350 feet away, how many 60-foot hoses would be needed.
In May, the DOJ entered into a similar settlement with Cobb County, Georgia. “The County’s use of these employment practices disproportionately removed qualified African Americans from consideration for a firefighter position. The complaint further alleges that the credit check and the use of the written exam to rank applicants do not lawfully identify the best-qualified candidates for the firefighter position,” the DOJ said.
Also this month, the DOJ forced Maryland State Police to pay $2.75 million to women who were barred from being officers because they couldn’t pass physical fitness exams testing, for example, the ability to sprint, and blacks who couldn’t pass a written test.
The test that the DOJ says is racist is designed to ensure that cops are at least as smart as an elementary school student and can serve residents by, for example, adding up the total value of stolen property when items were stolen valued at $400, $40, $1,500, and $100.
When police officers who don’t meet basic standards are hired, they sometimes abuse members of the public, resulting in still more accusations of racism if those members of the public are black. Last year, the media pointed to Memphis police allegedly repeatedly beating people as an example of police brutality — but it turned out that the police were all black and were hired despite not meeting the usual standards required for the position.
After D.C. Mayor Marion Barry made firehouses in the nation’s capital a racial spoils program, firefighters repeatedly turned out to be gun-toting, violent criminals. Public outrage over the hiring program culminated in 2014 after a 77-year-old man had a heart attack directly in front of a fire station and begged for help, but none of the firefighters ran to his aid. His family sued for $7 million.
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