Georgia's first black police officers couldn't arrest white suspects without a white officer present

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/01/black.officers.pension.ap/index.html

Georgia's first black police officers may take pension battle to court

updated 4:32 p.m. EST, Sat March 1, 2008

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- A "whites only" sign was still hanging on the precinct house water fountain in 1964 when James Booker joined the suburban College Park police force.

He soon learned it wasn't the only thing off limits to Georgia's new black recruits.

Until 1976, black officers were blocked from joining a state-supported supplemental police retirement fund.

Today, white officers who entered the fund before that year are taking home hundreds of dollars more every month in retirement benefits than their black counterparts.

The now-retired black officers have been lobbying hard to change that, but eight years after they began an effort to amend the state constitution and give them credit for those lost years is stalled in the Legislature. snip

The Georgia House has twice passed an amendment resolution but it has gone nowhere in the state Senate. An amendment requires a vote of two-thirds of each chamber as well as approval by voters.

"We can't fix everything for everybody," said state Sen. Bill Heath, chairman of the Senate Retirement Committee.

Heath, a Republican, argued that making retroactive changes to retirement benefits "opens up a can of worms and could destroy the pension system." snip

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.

[Skinner]

1. Unbelievable.

Maybe I'm naive. I really thought that our country had come farther than this. Legislation like this should pass unanimously even the most conservative state legislatures.

This is such an obvious injustice. Black officers have lower retirement benefits *today* because they were blocked from joining the retirement fund decades ago.

They should take this to court. They should take it all the way to the Supreme Court if they have to. Our country is better than this.

[RubyDuby in GA]

5. You would think that this would pass unanimously here, but this state has lost its humanity

I don't even recognize it anymore from the place I've called home nearly all my life. And the change has only happened in the past few years - mainly right about the time that Bush was anointed. After that, his buddies from Diebold made sure that GA would be the bastion of the old south - now they just call themselves Republicans instead of Dixiecrats, but they are one and the same.

It's like a mental poisoning. People here identify with a brand and the GOP has been revamping that brand since LBJ lost the South for what has now turned out to be more than a generation.

I hope these retired officers sue the pants off this state and win bigtime!

[LiberalAndProud]

2. ... miles to go before we sleep

We have come far, but have far to go. This is so terribly unjust.

[bluerum]

3. Yeah but,, it's the new south.

[BlooInBloo]

4. Always remember: There's absolutely nothing wrong with the south....

... Southern white folks tell me so.

[RubyDuby in GA]

6. See post # 5.

I'm white and Southern and I freely admit that there has been a breakdown somewhere along the way.
We're seriously looking into leaving this state far behind and my husband was born here and I have lived here for 28 of my 33 years on this planet. We live in the only home my son has ever known, but we will not allow him to grow up in a culture that is too stupid to realize it has lost its humanity.

[orleans]

8. it's sad that you feel you have to leave, but i understand.

my heart would break if i had to leave my home for such reasons. (for any reason, actually)

[Solly Mack]

7. I can't imagine ever living in Georgia again

I hope those retired officers win and win BIG.

[theboss]

9. I'm curious to know how other black state empoyees were treated by the pension system

I think you could probably sue under some sort of combined ERISA/equal protection action. But I wonder how many millions GA would be on the hook to for other workers and their families.