San Jose Police Dept - All-White Command

I read an article in the SJ Mercury yesterday about how Chief Davis has established his inner-circle of Deputies and that they are all-white and male. Comparisons are made to other cities with quotes from the NAACP and the Hispanic community served to raise eyebrows and controversy. I only give the article a "B-" as there was not enough sex and money controversy thrown into it.

Here is a link to the article:

http://www.mercurynews.com//ci_8052089?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com

Chief Davis has been under fire over the last couple of years on the subjects of Tasers, public records and racial profiling by his department, so this promises to be more fodder for attacks on him and the Department.

Having watched him speak at a public forum and personally spoken to him on several occasions regarding police misconduct and racism, I have found him very sincere and took to heart the concerns that I brought forward to him. He did not stonewall, brush me off nor cop an attitude (sorry, I just had to throw that pun in there.)

Apparently, in the past he has had a 'mix' in his command staff, however he encountered an interesting situation: As soon as a certain requirement is accomplished to earn a pension or whatever it is called, you can retire and then soon after go work in a police department at a more smaller, safer community for a good chunk-a-change while still being paid your pension from your old job. So, no one is discriminating about the color green here, I guess. I don't know why Chief Davis doesn't bring THAT up in the articles, maybe its not true or not politically correct or something. If any one knows the real deal on this, please send me a correction.

Some months back, I visited the Independent Police Auditor (IPA) office. I was told that the number of complaints regarding police 'rudeness' had been increasing, and from what I remember, the claims of racism wasn't a huge issue necessarily. There was no concern of racism as an 'institutional' problem within the SJPD.

For what it is worth and possibly ironic for those of you that are true believers in color management, I believe the head of Internal Affairs is of Vietnamese descent. (So, nothing like having an Asian to keep the white man under control?!)

While different agencies are being ordered to take more 'ethnic sensitivity' training, it should probably include training on the 'white-ethnic' as well before it gets all out of balance. Reading that text-book would be interesting.

Regardless, I want people who are QUALIFIED to do the job and one of those qualifications is, NOT being racist.