Go to the head of the protected class
A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine sends me to a link from The Stranger's blog, with the headline "We're killing everybody we can", which is supposedly a quote from one of Seattle's police officers. I was taken aback. There's no way a cop would say that on the record to a journalist. Then I thought maybe this is a parody, like what The Onion would do, except without the humor. When I found out that some dipstick had run around to local newspaper vending machines and putting a doctored front page in each of 'em, I was unsurprised. For those who have their field guide open, that's your Average Seattle Feminine Hygiene Product. But there's more! Anarchists have been running around, causing trouble, raising their fists and shouting their slogans, not because they really want to take on The Man, but because they're 15 to 25 years old, and this is their first taste of rebellion. They will eventually succumb to the siren call of the man and put on the suit and tie and own a compact car that will take them to their nine-to-five job because that's how you ear money, instead of eating Cheetos in Mom and Dad's basement and going out to throw bricks and get bean bags shot at them.
Luckily, there are oasi of sanity in this bastion of craziness. There's no mistaking Danny Westneat's slant, but that's OK because he writes an opinion column for The Seattle Times. He also has a heaping pile of common sense that he doles out regularly.
Just today I heard a story about how Seattle aims to make released felons a protected class as it pertains to renting or owning a home: to wit, landlords could not discriminate against released felons on that basis alone.
I happen to think that this is a crock of horsepucky and am completely unsurprised that Seattle would go for this. Your criminal record is not the same as your skin color, religion preference or absence, sex, or any of the list of protected classes. For one, you choose to undertake crime, and for the most part, you can't choose or change the other classes.
For two, there's a reason that you don't magically get all the rights after being released. You don't get to vote, you don't get to own guns, you might be on house arrest for a while as a condition of release, among other things. You don't just hop on a bus with fifty bucks and your kit bag after Walla Walla lets you out. There's a long road ahead after release. I'm not advocating for keeping our collective thumb on ex-cons once they're over the wall, but to have the Office of Civil Rights make this call is well past silly and into absurd.
I covered most of the main points, but here's Danny's entire article. I rather liked his closing point: what if the poor or those with lousy credit lobbied to become a protected class. What if a landlord had to rent to people who had a documented history of not paying their bills on time? There's no way that a destitute person could afford the first-last-security deposit that the landlord would require if he had to rent to everyone, with no regard to credit worthiness.
The Office of Civil Rights should stick to fighting legitimate injustices, and not worrying about nonsense like making sure released felons have an easy time assimilating into the public again.
Luckily, there are oasi of sanity in this bastion of craziness. There's no mistaking Danny Westneat's slant, but that's OK because he writes an opinion column for The Seattle Times. He also has a heaping pile of common sense that he doles out regularly.
Just today I heard a story about how Seattle aims to make released felons a protected class as it pertains to renting or owning a home: to wit, landlords could not discriminate against released felons on that basis alone.
I happen to think that this is a crock of horsepucky and am completely unsurprised that Seattle would go for this. Your criminal record is not the same as your skin color, religion preference or absence, sex, or any of the list of protected classes. For one, you choose to undertake crime, and for the most part, you can't choose or change the other classes.
For two, there's a reason that you don't magically get all the rights after being released. You don't get to vote, you don't get to own guns, you might be on house arrest for a while as a condition of release, among other things. You don't just hop on a bus with fifty bucks and your kit bag after Walla Walla lets you out. There's a long road ahead after release. I'm not advocating for keeping our collective thumb on ex-cons once they're over the wall, but to have the Office of Civil Rights make this call is well past silly and into absurd.
I covered most of the main points, but here's Danny's entire article. I rather liked his closing point: what if the poor or those with lousy credit lobbied to become a protected class. What if a landlord had to rent to people who had a documented history of not paying their bills on time? There's no way that a destitute person could afford the first-last-security deposit that the landlord would require if he had to rent to everyone, with no regard to credit worthiness.
The Office of Civil Rights should stick to fighting legitimate injustices, and not worrying about nonsense like making sure released felons have an easy time assimilating into the public again.