Police Force Quits After Black Woman Elected Mayor

[aGameOfThrones]

Employees of one small Missouri town had an extreme*reaction when residents elected their*first Black female mayor: 80% of the police department quit, along with the city clerk and two other staffers.*

Tyrus Byrd, a former Parma, MO*city council member, was sworn into office as mayor*last week, but she will*have to deal with a police force with only one person. Five of the town's six police officers submitted letters of resignation last week, citing only*"safety concerns," according to news station KFVS.*

No one knows yet exactly*what "safety concerns" would make a town's public safety officers quit en masse, but Byrd has said she is still determined to clean up the city.*To make the mass resignations even more suspicious,*KFVS also reported that when Byrd started her first day, the officers' resignation letters could not be found, and that computers had been wiped clean.

Byrd won a close election against*longtime Mayor Randall Ramsey, who held*the office for*37 years.*The population of Parma is slightly more than 700*people, and Byrd won by less than 40 votes.*The city attorney, clerk, and waste water treatment supervisor also resigned with the police officers.*

http://www.refinery29.com/2015/04/85950/police-department-quits-after-town-elects-black-woman-mayor

 

[morfeeis]

While a dirtball move i9t was only five people that quit (two or three of which were part time). i think the town only had like 700 residents or something like that too. It just sounds like a bunch of good ol boys got bitter about their loss and took "their ball" and went home.

Just shows that even on a small level government just freaking breeds corruption.....

 

[FSP-Rebel]

What's up with all the asterisks in the commentary? They aren't there on the link.

 

[Valli6]

What's up with all the asterisks in the commentary? They aren't there on the link.

I've noticed that when you cut and paste a paragraph to this forum, sometimes asterisks appear in the "spaces" , even though they are not visible in the original text.

 

[jbauer]

Good for them. Now they have to find a job and there is 5 openings for the new mayor to fill. Those folks used their 1st amendment rights.

While a dirtball move i9t was only five people that quit (two or three of which were part time). i think the town only had like 700 residents or something like that too. It just sounds like a bunch of good ol boys got bitter about their loss and took "their ball" and went home.

Just shows that even on a small level government just freaking breeds corruption.....

 

[thoughtomator]

sounds like jobs opened up for a forensic investigator and an auditor

 

[specsaregood]

sounds like jobs opened up for a forensic investigator and an auditor

Sounds to me like I need to find a viable black woman to run for mayor of the town.

 

[tod evans]

Government employees quitting is NEVER a bad thing.....

Trying to blame their behavior on either race or sex IS a bad thing...

 

[nobody's_hero]

37 years the prior mayor was in office. 37. Say it again! 37!!!.

The whole fucking town needs to resign . . . from voting. What the fuck is the point?

 

[jmdrake]

Sounds to me like I need to find a viable black woman to run for mayor of the town.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to specsaregood again.

 

[RJB]

Sounds to me like I need to find a viable black woman to run for mayor of the town.

Or the country.

Maybe we went wrong with Obama. Do you think that if we elected a black woman as president we would be blessed with 80% of the police quitting across the country?

 

[GunnyFreedom]

While a dirtball move i9t was only five people that quit (two or three of which were part time). i think the town only had like 700 residents or something like that too. It just sounds like a bunch of good ol boys got bitter about their loss and took "their ball" and went home.

Just shows that even on a small level government just freaking breeds corruption.....

When I first read it I was angry and offended, but the more I thought about it, now she can hire four of whomever she wants. Go out and arrest the former deputies for public endangerment for wiping their computers, and hold a very public trial where it boils down to "give us the data or go to prison." The new mayor gets to be the hero who cleaned up the scumbags and probably win bigger next time, and you get to shed 80% of the town's inertia right up front and hire all new people to run the place from stem to stern.

All these new people you don't have to fire or wait out will allow the mayor to establish her leadership far quicker and more profoundly than had any of them stuck around. She will become entrenched almost immediately. If the place doesn't magically break out in crime and riots she will probably keep being mayor until she does something else really stupid.

So it's all offensive and you get mad at the ignoramus and then you realize the ignoramus is actually stabbing himself in the eyes and throwing money at the feet of the new mayor.

Seriously, this kind of thing is how you go from "okay we will try something new, maybe" into "hero Mayor saves the day!"

The ignoramuses totally martyred the Mayor, which will give her like a 15-20 point tailwind.

If they really didn't like this new Mayor, they totally and utterly surrendered and capitulated to her.

It's not like there will suddenly be a crime wave in a town of 700, unless these four disgruntled are the criminals.

 

[PaulConventionWV]

37 years the prior mayor was in office. 37. Say it again! 37!!!.

The whole fucking town needs to resign . . . from voting. What the fuck is the point?

They might as well have called him King.

 

[GunnyFreedom]

Government employees quitting is NEVER a bad thing.....

I couldn't possibly agree more.

Trying to blame their behavior on either race or sex IS a bad thing...

Let's be realistic here. This isn't a court of law. This is just a town in Missouri. What really are the chances that it's NOT just a bunch of good ol' boys bitchin how they won't let a black woman tell them what to do? If it walks like a duck.

I think it's going to backfire on them pretty badly though.

 

[William Tell]

Yeah, cops quitting is usually good. But the headline? There are plenty of people in my town I would not want to work for if they were elected mayor and I was a city employee. Regardless of skin color.

 

[William Tell]

What really are the chances that it's NOT just a bunch of good ol' boys bitchin how they won't let a black woman tell them what to do?

I have no idea. I don't even see anything in the article saying what race(s) the city employees and cops belong to.

 

[specsaregood]

/.

 

[GunnyFreedom]

Yeah, cops quitting is usually good. But the headline? There are plenty of people in my town I would not want to work for if they were elected mayor and I was a city employee. Regardless of skin color.

Sure, a few people here and there will leave and eventually the turnover will be complete. But everybody all at once, and without any kind of hand-off at all? That's punitive.

 

[GunnyFreedom]

What exactly are you suggesting about us good ol' Missouri boys?

Nothin different than I'd suggest about any of a dozen other states in the region, including mine.

A little two horse town anywhere in the southern Bible belt and every job filled with good old white boys. Town elects a black female Mayor and basically everybody quits on the spot, without even a document handoff. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what's going on.

 

[specsaregood]

/.