what.
I said "holy crap" so many times reading this article: Retired black police officers seek pension parity.
Black police officers in Georgia started to join the force in the late 1940s, but they weren't allowed to participate in the state's pension program until 1976. (Holy crap.) Now they're trying to get the benefits they were denied because of their race. So far they've been stymied, because remedying this wrong because requires amending the state constitution, and the state Senate has balked. For eight years.
"We can't fix everything for everybody," said state Sen. Bill Heath, chairman of the Senate Retirement Committee.
(hc.)
Heath, a Republican, argued that making retroactive changes to retirement benefits "opens up a can of worms and could destroy the pension system."
Me: "Oh, Georgia! Georgia, Georgia." The solvency and sustainability of the state pension system is dependent on screwing over black people? Even if it were true, how is it supportable as a position, a reason? How do you say that out loud? (And, hc.)
Georgia's first black officers, hired in the late 1940s, entered a segregated system rife with daily humiliations. They couldn't arrest white offenders without a white officer present. They couldn't change into uniforms at the station house, or wear their uniforms to work, forcing many to switch clothes in the locker room at the local black YMCA.
(hc.) The retired police officers are going to sue if the Legislature doesn't move forward on this in this session. Good.
Black police officers in Georgia started to join the force in the late 1940s, but they weren't allowed to participate in the state's pension program until 1976. (Holy crap.) Now they're trying to get the benefits they were denied because of their race. So far they've been stymied, because remedying this wrong because requires amending the state constitution, and the state Senate has balked. For eight years.
"We can't fix everything for everybody," said state Sen. Bill Heath, chairman of the Senate Retirement Committee.
(hc.)
Heath, a Republican, argued that making retroactive changes to retirement benefits "opens up a can of worms and could destroy the pension system."
Me: "Oh, Georgia! Georgia, Georgia." The solvency and sustainability of the state pension system is dependent on screwing over black people? Even if it were true, how is it supportable as a position, a reason? How do you say that out loud? (And, hc.)
Georgia's first black officers, hired in the late 1940s, entered a segregated system rife with daily humiliations. They couldn't arrest white offenders without a white officer present. They couldn't change into uniforms at the station house, or wear their uniforms to work, forcing many to switch clothes in the locker room at the local black YMCA.
(hc.) The retired police officers are going to sue if the Legislature doesn't move forward on this in this session. Good.