Exposed Prejudices in the State Highway Patrol | Rowsey Blog

Exposed Prejudices in the State Highway Patrol

May 13, 2008

I really hadn’t given this story the attention that it deserved when it initially occurred.  According to the Columbus Dispatch, two state highway patrol officers were suspended, and later fired, for a “klan prank.”

A patrol investigation found that Franklin put a white cone on his head and donned a white mask and white cloth the day before Martin Luther King Day. Wlodarsky took a photo that he forwarded on his cell phone.

I can already hear that many will say that it was just a joke, or that the punishment does not fit the crime.  Is it not their constitutional right of free speech or some other right to act or say moronic, offensive, or even hateful things?  Perhaps.

But when in Ohio are we going to get serious about our elected officials and other entities that represent the government (i.e. highway patrol) behaving in a way that is fitting of their job and the public trust that they hold?  We recently finally moved beyond a corrupt governor who should probably be serving time, we have a corrupt (to say the least) attorney general who now refuses to resign, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Driving around predominately “white neighborhoods’ in central Ohio, it always amazes me to notice who the cops are pulling over.  I’ve not done any type of formal study, but suffice it to say, it seems like there are a lot of African Americans getting pulled over and I doubt that is due to coincidence.

Posted by Jason Rowsey | Filed Under Ohio Government 

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