This is weird and dirty: Profiling Report Leads to a Demotion. The circumstantial evidence is strong that the politicos at the Bush Dept. of Justice are so worried about perturbing white racists that they didn’t want to draw any attention to a report demonstrating disparate treatment of minorities during traffic stops. [Note: Why do I say “politicos” plural, when the article speaks of just one — because I don’t think demoting a civil servant is something that’s easy to do.]
In fairness, one should note that unlike some other reports in other departments (think global warming and pollution), no attempt was made to change the actual wording of the report or its conclusions. Here the fix was just political: first try to tone down the press release, then when the career official objects, decide to issue the report online with no fanfare at all…then demote the official.
Even so, the only motive I can see for not wanting to draw attention to racially disparate actions by local cops — a group over whom the US government has only limited authority, primarily via very rare civil rights lawsuits or prosecutions — is a political fear of annoying white racist voters.
Or is there some other equally plausible explanation I am missing here?
