The same lawyer who won a suit against the Boston Fire Dept. that invalidated their quota hiring has just filed a similar suit against the city of Newton, Mass.
Since the 1970s the Newton fire department has been using “a system of hiring one minority candidate for every three white candidates.”
Sounds like a quota to me, but Newton Mayor David Cohen “would not comment on whether the department’s current hiring policy constitutes a quota system. Instead, he stressed the importance of a diverse workforce.” Well, he would, wouldn’t he?
And what does the fire chief say about this quota (or not) hiring?
… Fire Chief Joseph LaCroix said applicants to the fire department go through a rigorous process and defends the quality of the firefighters the city hires.
“The way the system is working right now, any individual – regardless of what list I draw them from – are well qualified,” LaCroix said. “There is no color barrier [in the Newton Fire Department]. And every member of this department is perfectly qualified to do this job. I stand behind them 100 percent.”
Let me translate this for you in a fictional interview:
Q: “Chief, do I understand you to say that you keep two separate lists of applicants, one for whites and one for blacks, and that you follow a strict quota policy of hiring one black for every three whites? In other words, that after three whites are hired you wouldn’t consider any other white until you’ve hired a black?”
A: “John, let me repeat: all of our hires are qualified, and I stand behind them 100%.”
Q: “But Chief, what do you do if two black applicants in a row are the most, you know, well qualifed?”
Oh never mind.
