Police chief suspended over racial comment

[thaite]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont....4a20788b.html

FB chief suspended over racial comment

Job applicant didn't hear slur; city will review hiring practices

07:58 PM CST on Thursday, January 5, 2006

By STEPHANIE SANDOVAL / The Dallas Morning News

Farmers Branch Police Chief Jimmy Fawcett has been suspended for 10 days without pay for making a racial slur about people of Vietnamese heritage last month in front of six officers who had convened to interview job applicants.

The suspension started Thursday, according to a written statement from the city.
Jimmy Fawcett

"He also has apologized to the six people that were in the room," city spokesman Tom Bryson said Thursday.

Chief Fawcett, who acknowledged making the "inappropriate comments," did not return phone calls this week seeking comment.

The chief also is required to continue counseling with an organizational psychologist that began last month, according to the statement.

The incident has prompted the city to review the department's hiring practices.

The remark was made Dec.14, the day six job applicants were to face an interview board made up of department employees ranging from an administrative assistant to deputy chief. One of the applicants is Vietnamese-American. Neither he nor any of the other applicants were in the room when the comments were made, the city said.

Mr. Bryson said the city does not have a copy of the complaint because it was made orally. The city would not disclose the name of the complainant.

Jennifer Nguyen, grand public relations officer for the Vietnamese American Community of Greater Dallas and a member of the Vietnamese American Media Association, on Wednesday had called only for a public apology by the chief.

But the punishment handed down by the city manager is "fair enough," Ms. Nguyen said.

She said she hopes Asian-Americans realize that the comments reflect only on the chief, and not on the department or the city.

However, Ms. Nguyen said, ethnic slurs by such a high-ranking city official could hinder efforts to involve Asian-Americans in the city, Ms. Nguyen said.

"The Asian community just held a big banquet in September 2005, and for the very first time some members from the City Council attended, and we were so thrilled to welcome them with open arms, and now this is happening," she said. "So I'm afraid the Asian community is going to shy away and go back to themselves and not want to associate with American people anymore."

Chief Fawcett is a 32-year department veteran and has been chief for 15 years. He had an unblemished record before the incident, the city said.

Before beginning his law enforcement career in Sherman in 1971, he served in the Navy for four years, including assignments in Vietnam, Japan, the Philippines and Korea, according to his biography.

Chief Fawcett is also fifth vice president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and is slated to become president in 2010. He holds a Master Certificate from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education, a bachelor's degree from Abilene Christian University and an associate degree from Grayson County Junior College.

Three of the department's 100 employees – sworn officers and civilians – are Asian-American, Mr. Bryson said.

According to the 2000 census, about 3 percent of the city's population is Asian-American.

[LaiSteve66]

*sign* Why do people do stupid things?

[Faithless]

Originally Posted by LaiSteve66

*sign* Why do people do stupid things?

After 32 years, he thought he could say anything he wanted.

This article says --

http://cbs11tv.com/local/local_story_005225535.html

Farmers Branch has never had an Asian police officer.

[Chu Chi]

None of us are qualified to judge this person because the article does not reveal what he said.

It is possible he only said: "the criminal element cannot handle our new background check policy...it is a chink in their armor"


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[sandra]

what exactly did he say? suspended 10 days without pay sounds like a slap on the wrist. what would be nice, though, is if this incident and his suspension could be admissible as evidence in every single vietnamese defendant's case in which his department is involved - to show bias and racism. he's the chief, after all, and i doubt this is the first time he's said something like this.

[Chad]

uhh...

They say Fawcett was referring to a Vietnamese police recruit and said, "As long as I'm chief, we won't have any gooks working in Farmers Branch."

I live near Farmers Branch. It doesn't surprise me that he said this. I'm circulating this to my local friends so we can let Farmers Branch know that we want him fired. It probably won't happen, but I'm going to let them know anyways.
Some of his colleagues are defending him by saying that he's married to a Japanese woman and therefore couldn't possibly be racist. What the fuck does that have to do with the "gooks" comment? Nothing.. these are the racists and idiots who run our cities.

I also hope that this spawns a discrimination lawsuit and the Vietnamese recruit or somebody sues the shit out of the Farmers Branch police.

[Banana]

The chief has declined to comment publicly for this story. But his defenders point out that Chief Fawcett’s wife of 35 years is Japanese and his children are Japanese/American proving that his is sensitive to the Asian community.

This always makes me laugh. When will people finally get it through their damn heads that just because you're married to a colored woman doesn't mean you can't be racist by a superiority complex? Can someone people point out to the media that Strom Thurmand was also borking a black woman at the same time he was fighting against basic human civil rights for African Americans? And like Chad said, what has Japanese people got to do with Vietnamese people? And why don't these Asian American groups counter appropriately? Additionally, the outrage isn't with the comments itself but should be opened to inquiry because his comments could be the cause of racial discrimination since there are no Asian police officers on the force.

I'm sorry but everyone is pretty much braindamaged which includes the Asian American groups, police, their supporters, as well as the town government.

I knew a Vietnam vet that was married to a Vietnamese woman and also had a daughter. When the daughter would date white guys, he was fine with it. When she would date Asian guys, he would go on racist tirades about how Asian males eat weeds, are sneaky and evil, worship Satan, etc.

[Chu Chi]

QUOTE:
"Chief Fawcett’s wife of 35 years is Japanese and his children are Japanese/American proving that his is sensitive to the Asian community"


Is this true?


If it is and he is a White person, the charge of PRACTICING RACISM ain't gonna stick to this racist suspect because he is having sexual intercourse with a victim of racism on a regular basis.

These are the most dangerous types of racist suspects because they can hide behind their victims.

My suggestion?

Try to warn the other victims of this phenomenon.


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[Arex]

10 days suspension for seeking to establish/maintain a racist hiring policy is way too light a punishment. This guy should be FIRED. Imagine what would have happened if he'd said, "As long as I'm chief, we won't have any n***ers working in Farmers Branch." The NACCP would've been all over this, and rightly so. The Asian American community (and particularly the Vietnamese community) needs to demand his head on a plate.

Most surprising to me is that one of the hiring officers ratted him out for the comments. Props to that individual. Notice how, although he acknowledged making the remarks and apologized to the other officers on the hiring panel who heard him, he didn't apologize to the Vietnamese community. Asshole. (although, really, what kind of damage control could he really do?)

But the department really needs to can his dumb ass. Talk about a liability. I can't think of any better evidence one would need to bring a successful racial discrimination suit.

I wonder what his wife thinks of his comments.

[Banana]

Chances are, she doesn't. The ones that marry these racist individuals are usually the full embodiment of the submissive Asian female stereotype.

It makes me madder than hell when I see these retarded Asian American civil rights groups doing and demanding all the wrong things. The outrageous part is that they never counter the points correctly. Instead of harping on his comments being wrong, they should have:

1.) Demand to open up the records of past Asian applications to see if the chief's discrimination played a factor in them not getting hired.

2.) Praise for the person that outed this scumbag.

3.) Countered the notion of "I'm borking an Asian woman so I can't be racist" excuse.

4.) Demand an apology from the chief and town to the Asian community.

5.) Fire the chief.

[mr. x]

Originally Posted by Arex

I wonder what his wife thinks of his comments.

my guess is he didnt marry her to think

[Chad]

Anyways, what does a Japanese woman have to do with a racist remark against a Vietnamese man? This type of justification is basically saying the old "they're all the same" bullshit. Fuck all of these assholes, I want him fired.

[Chinasaur]

I feel like saying 10 days suspension is a joke, except it's not funny at all.

Some comedian once said that racism will never cease to exist until everybody crossbreeds, because then, making fun of each other on racial grounds would be absurd.

I wonder how much truth there could be in a statement like that. Not much, probably.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

Originally Posted by Chinasaur

Some comedian once said that racism will never cease to exist until everybody crossbreeds, because then, making fun of each other on racial grounds would be absurd.

I wonder how much truth there could be in a statement like that. Not much, probably.

Yeah ... the obvious counterexample being Brazil ...

[Chu Chi]

Originally Posted by Chinasaur

I feel like saying 10 days suspension is a joke, except it's not funny at all.

Some comedian once said that racism will never cease to exist until everybody crossbreeds, because then, making fun of each other on racial grounds would be absurd.

I wonder how much truth there could be in a statement like that. Not much, probably.

I suspect you are correct.

A supreme racial system of mistreatment based on color does not require the racist suspects to have a different color than their victims.

All a racist suspect requires is the POWER (will + ability) to practice racism.

Armed with such power the racist suspect can then assign any trait/characteristic (real or imagined) as the qualification for mistreatment.

Indeed, the trait/characteristic can even be one the racist suspect "carries".

Blue eyes may be "pretty" but they don't increase a persons visual accuity; they may even decrease it (according to William Shockley, nobel prize winning inventor of the transistor).

A racist only cares about losing one thing and thats the POWER (will + ability) to practice racism.


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