Sheriff's Deputy Dismissal

[Flaming Moderate]

Have you guys been following the controversy about the Dallas Sheriff's Deputy, who called the hurricane evacuees "knuckle draggers?" He has been suspended by the sheriff, but others are calling for him to lose his job. Any takes on this?

[carousel]

Who did the officer allegedly make this statement to?

[Flaming Moderate]

From what I glean it was in a staff meeting.

[Columbus Civil]

I heard about it. Seems like a non-story to me.

[Flaming Moderate]

So you support the suspension and if be, firing?

[Columbus Civil]

No, not at all. I should have said I thought the officer's statement was a non-issue. If he/she had said it in public, that would be a different story. However, if this person has a history of making such remarks, maybe the firing was justified.

[Insidetheloop]

I believe the comments were made in a private staff meeting. They were in regards to the problems that the refugees were causing inside the Decker jail. The deputy was frustrated that the refugees were vandalising the interior, urinating on the floors and leaving large amounts of trash in the foyer. Hence the knuckledragger and monkey comments.

If it makes you feel better...the deputy was hispanic and most of the refugees were white.

[Flaming Moderate]

Apparently, the guy was suspended and may lose his job.

[Boredkid]

Here is the story from the dallas morning news.

Sheriff gets pressure to fire deputy
Dallas County: Suspension for slur isn't enough, commissioners say
07:18 AM CST on Wednesday, November 16, 2005
By JAMES M. O'NEILL / The Dallas Morning News
Dallas County commissioners and a local civil rights leader said Tuesday that the 20-day suspension Sheriff Lupe Valdez imposed on a top deputy for using a racial slur was insufficient, and they called for the man's removal.
Sheriff Valdez said she will work with the community and the top aide involved to smooth things over. But she said she was open to more drastic options if the community does not think the situation will improve.
Sheriff Valdez last week announced she had suspended Assistant Chief Deputy Greg Leveling for 20 days and ordered him to attend diversity training after he referred to hurricane evacuees as "knuckle draggers" in a staff meeting.
County Commissioner John Wiley Price, the lone minority member of the Commissioners Court and, like the sheriff, a Democrat, said he talked with her about the incident and his contention that her punishment was not severe enough.
"I'm not retreating on this. He needs to be gone," Mr. Price said. "This is certainly something that shouldn't be tolerated. It sends the wrong message."
Commissioner Maurine Dickey agreed. "There's no place for people with that kind of attitude in any level of government," she said. Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield said his first reaction was that he "probably would have fired the individual and not suspended him."
County Judge Margaret Keliher also said the punishment was insufficient. "I don't know that taking one course [on diversity] is adequate to fix an issue as serious as this," she said after Tuesday's Commissioners Court meeting.
Commissioner Mike Cantrell said "a person in that position should be held to a higher standard."
The Rev. Peter Johnson, an organizer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1969 and a vocal critic of racial bias, punctuated his report to the commissioners on a gun buyback program he organized in cooperation with the Sheriff's Department by expressing his dismay at Deputy Leveling's comments. He asked the commissioners to ensure that he be fired.
"I'm deeply disappointed that someone in the Sheriff's Department with that kind of authority" would use such a term, Mr. Johnson said. He called the attitude that would cause someone to use the term "not a problem of diversity. It's a problem of the heart."
After Mr. Johnson's comments, Sheriff Valdez talked with him for 15 to 20 minutes in the lobby as the meeting continued inside.
Deputy Leveling is a top assistant and is not subject to civil service rules, so he serves at the sheriff's pleasure. As a result, she could review her suspension and decide to take more stringent measures. For now, she said, she wants to try to work with the community and Deputy Leveling on making amends.
"If the community feels he's not responding, we'll need to do something else," she said. "I think we'll be able to work together. It will take the chief, me and the community to come up with a final solution for this. It will take all of us to make it right."
She said that Deputy Leveling had performed well prior to making the comments. He supervises the housing of more than 8,000 inmates at several facilities, including the Decker Detention Center. Decker has been used in recent weeks to house hurricane evacuees, and some have complained publicly about conditions there.
During an Oct. 18 meeting with subordinates, Deputy Leveling's frustration with the complaints boiled over, and he used the terms "knuckle draggers" and "knee walkers" when referring to the evacuees. He was Sheriff Valdez's first top administrative hire after she took office in January.
"He apologized profusely to me and everyone in the room," Sheriff Valdez said. "I know he feels badly about it. He embarrassed himself and the Sheriff's Department."

[FoUTASportscaster]

People get up in arms over the dumbest things. I guarantee you, at least some people who are pushing for the firing have said worse in private. I wish people would develop a thick skin.

[downtownbum]

exactly how is the term "knuckle dragger" racially insensitive? who is it insensitive to?

[erw150]

So, what I understand here is that it is a good idea for everyone to grow a "thick skin" be allowed to hurl any stereotype title humanly possible at anyone? Wow! Is that not a contradiction to values and teachings of a civil and sane society? Nevertheless, this tends to go out the window when you are that person being labeled or referred to as a "such and such".

And for the last time these people are not refugees but are evacuees. Even with the classification of people due to their circumstances, it appears to be ok as long as it is not “me”. Remember words have power even if you have "thick skin".

[FoUTASportscaster]

So, what I understand here is that it is a good idea for everyone to grow a "thick skin" be allowed to hurl any stereotype title humanly possible at anyone? Wow! Is that not a contradiction to values and teachings of a civil and sane society? Nevertheless, this tends to go out the window when you are that person being labeled or referred to as a "such and such".


Please tell me what has been stereotyped. We are talking all races and class of people from an area that has been uprooted from one part of the country and replanted in various places. Some have been nice and others have been a little unruely. But where/what stereotype exists for this.



And for the last time these people are not refugees but are evacuees. Even with the classification of people due to their circumstances, it appears to be ok as long as it is not “me”. Remember words have power even if you have "thick skin".


So you have been civil in the entirety of your life and never have spoken a word that might be offensive in an exasperated situation? This should be water off a ducks back.

[erw150]

So you have been civil in the entirety of your life and never have spoken a word that might be offensive in an exasperated situation? This should be water off a ducks back.[/QUOTE]

I never confirmed nor denied that I have or have not. All I am asking is it best for people to just to grow a thick skin or not? Nothing more, nothing less.

[Columbus Civil]

All I am asking is it best for people to just to grow a thick skin or not?

Yes. People are too easily offended these days and we get bogged down by unimportant stuff like this.

[erw150]

Okay. I have my answer. So, should he be fired, demoted, reassigned, or receive a slap on the wrist?

[Columbus Civil]

Just going by what has been reported, I would think a slap on the wrist would be more than enough.

[Boredkid]

I think a slap on the wrist is too much. He needs an apology by those pushing for him to be fired. And a bonus for everything he has had to go though.

[FoUTASportscaster]

I think a slap on the wrist is too much. He needs an apology by those pushing for him to be fired. And a bonus for everything he has had to go though.


I wouldn't say that. Just move on and maybe say watch what you say, with all the thin-skin people around, things can be overblown. Nothing more, nothing less.

[trolleygirl]

I always thougt a "knuckledragger" to be someone who is slow-moving and stubborn. How is that racially insensitive?

[WestTexan]

I've always understood that term to be a very inflammatory racial epitaph. I think that supension is appropriate, if not light, punishment. I don't care what race the officer is; it was a stupid and inappropriate thing to say. Particularly for some one serving the public in law enforcement.

[Boredkid]

If they suspend him for that, they may as well as suspend every officer. Or in that case ever one, at one time or another has had a non politicaly correct comment come out of their mouth.

[frankchitown]

Okay. I have my answer. So, should he be fired, demoted, reassigned, or receive a slap on the wrist?

Well if he's fired, he should start sobbing on the 6 o'clock news and sobbing again at church on the 10 o'clock news. Its always good to leave with a little dignity

[Flaming Moderate]

I've always understood that term to be a very inflammatory racial epitaph. I think that supension is appropriate, if not light, punishment. I don't care what race the officer is; it was a stupid and inappropriate thing to say. Particularly for some one serving the public in law enforcement.

To whom does it refer?

[Columbus Civil]

To whom does it refer?

That particular epithet refers to black people. It infers that they have not evolved enough to walk upright, so their knuckles drag the ground.

[Flaming Moderate]

Thanks. I thought they were diggin' at Neanderthals.

[FoUTASportscaster]

I thought it was directed at the cavemen in the Geico commercials.

[Boredkid]

Thought this was funny. Found it on guide live, suppose we should be mad at guide live for their use of knuckle-dragging.

People are primates, sex is primordial and the meek do not inherit the Earth. This becomes rocks-glass clear in the bars and clubs of Dallas, where the knuckle-dragging starts at happy hour and continues past closing.

http://www.guidelive.com/feature/54/lore.htm

[Columbus Civil]

I thought it was directed at the cavemen in the Geico commercials.

I love those commercials.

[ParkCitiesTexas]

That particular epithet refers to black people. It infers that they have not evolved enough to walk upright, so their knuckles drag the ground.




I think it refers to the AA that were from New Orleans, Not all AA people. Also remember that some white people were evacuees as well so they were probably considered knuckle draggers as well.

[Columbus Civil]

I think it refers to the AA that were from New Orleans, Not all AA people.

So you're saying that in addition to being knuckle draggers, they're also drunks?