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| Judge Orders New York to Correct Bias in Fire Department (552540) | |||
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Judge Orders New York to Correct Bias in Fire Department |
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Posted by streetcarman1 on Thu Jan 21 16:26:19 2010 Now lets see where right-wingers will run with this "football" and not FUMBLE down the street with it...lol:From today's NYTIMES.COM: January 22, 2010 Judge Orders New York to Correct Bias in Fire Department By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT A federal judge on Thursday ordered the City of New York to take several corrective actions to reverse what he has ruled were years of intentional discrimination against minority applicants to the Fire Department. In a 57-page memorandum, the judge, Nicholas G. Garaufis, of Federal District Court in Brooklyn, said the city needed to compensate those minorities who took the discriminatory entrance exams, which were offered between 1999 and 2007, and create fairer ones. Judge Garaufis said that the roughly 7,400 minority applicants who took the tests in question should have the opportunity to apply for compensation from the city. Of that group, 293 applicants who were deemed qualified, but are still not firefighters, should be given priority hiring status and retroactive seniority. The city also has to come up with a new testing procedure for prospective firefighters unless it can validate that the current test treats minorities fairly. The judge’s memorandum came a week after he ruled that the city had intentionally discriminated against black applicants by continuing to use an entrance exam that it had been told put them at a disadvantage. The decision was particularly noteworthy because it was believed to be the first time the court had found that the city had intentionally discriminated against a large group of people. In damning language, Judge Garaufis said the city looked the other way in regards to the discrimination and that it had “uniquely disabling effects.” Judge Garaufis said in his order on Thursday that “these forms of relief are simple in concept, but will be complex in execution.” He added, “Achieving these basic aims will require ongoing oversight, attention to myriad details and resolution of disputes among the parties.” Judge Garaufis declined the request of the Vulcan Society, which brought the suit, to implement hiring quotas for the department. Suzanne B. Goldberg, a professor of law at Columbia University and an expert on employment discrimination, said that although Judge Garaufis did not order quotas, the ruling still validated the position of the Vulcan Society, a fraternal organization of black city firefighters. “The court says that hiring quotas are appropriate in only certain circumstances,” Ms. Goldberg said in a telephone interview. “The judge clearly outlined a serious response to the decades of discrimination, but it appears that he just wants to do it in a different way. It’s not surprising, because quotas have a hot-button history.” |
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