Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Racial profiling - is it? was it?

When will the issue of racial profiling at the McHenry County Sheriff's Department be put to rest? And how?

Will an outside, independent, trustworthy agency be brought in to investigate? Or will the sheriff's department investigate itself - again?

What will they find?

I remember the phone call I received one day after rollcall. "They told us, 'Just mark everybody down as white.'" Now that's a good way to end racial profiling, isn't it? Seems like some of the deputies did just that.

And I remember the statement to Judge Mahoney in Federal Court in Rockford by the sheriff's own attorney: "...Seipler was terminated for complaining about racial profiling."

Now we all know how I have complained about not being able to hear so well in McHenry County Courtrooms. Could I have "mis-heard" in Rockford? Let's see what the transcript of that fateful day in Rockford has to say:

"MS. BARTON: Because Mr. Seipler was terminated for complaining about racial profiling. ..." [Page 6, Lines 21-22]

Well, I guess the way I wrote it down right in front of Judge Mahoney was pretty accurate; right?

How many investigations were there at the sheriff's department into racial profiling, before and during the early parts of Zane Seipler's civil rights lawsuit against the Sheriff and the Department? Three?

If there is a "current" investigation, could it possibly come up with any other result than "No racial profiling"? If it did, how would they ever explain away the results of the first three "investigations"?

Wait! Breaking News: SEE http://dailyherald.com/article/20110525/news/705259788/  The Sheriff says there is no racial profiling. Four deputies just "mis-marked" citations.

Oh, my. Thank goodness...  Somehow, I think this isn't the end of things...

I'm reading an interesting book right now - Hoodwinked, by Jack Cashill. On January 24, 1980, author and progressive Mary McCarthy was a guest on The Dick Cavett Show. She had this to say about Lillian Hellman, as she answered a question from Cavett about her accusation that Hellman was "tremendously overrated, a bad writer, and a dishonest writer." She added, "I said once in some interview that every word she (Hellman) writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the.'" (Hoodwinked, by Jack Cashill. pp. 37-40, Nelson Currant, Nashville, Tenn.)

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