City Ignored Unlawful Bias: Weak Oversight by City Council

Four Cambridge Human Rights Commissioners say, "Our attempt in 2005 to acquire general information about city employee complaints of discrimination, to receive a copy of the Monteiro complaint and to request the city law department to meet with us simply to provide us with the information, which the ordinance clearly mandates that we should have, was met with hostility. We were accused by the law department with interfering, told that our inquiry was out of line and informed that as a city-appointed body our interest and concern should be with city officials, when our mandate is to be concerned with and “protect… the human rights of all city… employees.” Furthermore, our attempt to be “properly informed,” we were told, carried the threat of a conflict of interest."

Yet the former Human Rights Executive Director, Quoc Tran, an associate of the police department refused to reveal public records to me about a proposed amendment to the city Human Rights ordinance, on two occasions. He also refused to accept complaints about unlawful discrimination in the city by city employees against persons with disabilities. He thought it was funny. He used the same arguments the commissioners say city officials used to them, that it was a conflict of interest. Curiously the city employs two affirmative action officers or diversity officers at $80,000 per year to address bias and hurt feelings, duplicating the work of the MCAD. These two city employees have no enforcement power unlike the Human Rights Commission which does. But the Diversity officers do not address hurt feelings of persons with disabilities or unlawful bias against them. These two officers are where city employees are supposed to go if they do not want to go to the MCAD because it is too far. My complaints to the City Council about the Human Rights Commission were ignored over many years. It shows that the City Councilors, the voters and taxpayers have no interest in addressing unlawful abuses by city officials. It is a statewide problem in MA where laws are optional. What role does Harvard play with this pervasive lawlessness? I am reminded of Roger Morris' observation in his tome, "Partners in Power," regarding the Clintons. He said the preferred profile of a leader is a weak person with relaxed rectitude. Does that describe the City Councilors, Police Commissioners, US Senators, US Reps, state reps and state senators in MA? How about the Executive Director of the Human Rights Commission and the City Officials with whom he shared opinions?

http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/x984138967/Letter-No-information-on-Monteiro-case-from-the-start#axzz1b5OsRIgv

Letter: No information on Monteiro case from the start
[Editor’s note: The following letter was sent to the Cambridge City Council last week by former Cambridge Human Rights Commissioners. Since that time, the remaining cases mentioned in the letter have been settled by the city.]
Wicked Local Cambridge
Posted Oct 17, 2011 @ 03:29 PM

Fake Human Rights Commission

This was likely a Press Release with a picture of about 20 teenagers in the Cambridge City Council Chambers. Each year Cambridge and other cities in MA run art contests in high schools. This is what a full time Human Rights Commissioner declares is Human Rights. For several years in Cambridge until he left City government Quoc Tran used to give an award each year to the landlord who did not raise rents as high as he was legally allowed to do. That is what Cambridge one-party liberal democracy calls Human Rights. Never has any local Human Rights commission investigate why the Boston office of the US Fair Housing Act office of HUD employed five or more intake employees none of whom knew the legal definition of disability. Nor did any local or state Human Rights commissioners investigate why the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development was unconcerned with that fact. More smoke and mirrors from liberal Democrats.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/x1141512291/Cambridge-fair-housing-award-ceremony-held?photo=0#axzz1MRgJ08ez

Cambridge fair housing award ceremony held
Cambridge Chronicle
Posted May 16, 2011 @ 01:26 PM

Keeping Up Appearances

Keeping Up Appearances

This report and the City Council action is one
more example of the "appearance" of addressing denial of rights to
persons with disabilities. (Matt Dunning, "After five years of debate, city
puts teeth in disability ordinance," Cambridge Chronicle, Mar 06, 2008) Yes
the amendment permits the city to enforce one section (Title III) of the ADA.
But the city itself remains immune from having to comply with the same
requirements (Title II) applied to private businesses.
The City Attorney, the City Manager, the
Assistant Manager for Human Services agreed that the city remain free to deny
access to persons with disabilities to their programs and their buildings.
When first brought to the Ordinance committee the amendment was sent back
to the proponents, the Human Rights Commission and the Handicapped
Commission to include all disabilities not just persons who use wheelchairs.
But they did nothing. The city recognized that they are violating the ADA, the
Rehabilitation Act and state and city laws.
This shows how pathetic the status of persons
with disabilities is in Cambridge. The few docile persons in wheelchairs are
willing to throw other persons with disabilities under the bus in order to
get access to some restaurants. They give up having complete access as
they are legally entitled to due to the leadership in the city's
bureaucracy which serves the City Manager's lawless bigoted standards.
On March 3, 2008 the City Council passed an order to address hate crimes
in Jamaica and across the world. But they continue
to maintain unlawful policies which deny to persons with disabilities
equal access to city programs and to city services. Cambridge Councilors
get the award for being the most hypocritical politicians in the nation.
Convene the Awards Committee to honor these self serving cuttlefish.

Roy Bercaw - Editor ENOUGH ROOM

After five years of debate, city puts teeth in
disability ordinance
By Matt Dunning
Cambridge Chronicle Staff
Thu Mar 06, 2008, 04:57 PM EST

Animal Rights vs Human Rights

Animal Rights vs Human Rights

PETA and Peter Singer regard abuses of humans as a lower priority than
abuses of animals. (Star Parker, "PETA: Sicker Than Vick," Miami Herald,
August 24, 2007) This standard is institutionalized in state and US
laws. Animal Protection Act of 1966 has fines and jail time for violations of
animal research laws. There are no penalties for violations of the laws on
humans used for research (Title 45 CFR Section 46). Office of Human Research
Protection refers complaints about unlawful research using humans to the accused
institution for processing.
After 7 humans died in medical experiments at Harvard teaching hospitals in
Boston there were no criminal proceedings, unlike in the Vick case abusing dogs.

Roy Bercaw, Editor, ENOUGH ROOM

Posted on Fri, Aug. 24, 2007
STAR PARKER: Who is sicker, Vick or PETA?
MiamiHerald.com

The Michael Vick dogfighting scandal is morphing into a broader NFL dogfighting
scandal, as other NFL players also appear to be involved in this very weird
pastime.

But as animal-rights groups get more aggressive in their accusations and
demands, the whole scene is getting stranger and stranger. And the closer you
look, the more you see the deep conflicts in core values that fracture our
society.

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) wants the NFL to "add cruelty
to animals - in all its forms - to its personal conduct policy." What, for PETA,
is "cruelty to animals - in all its forms"? According to its Web site, we should
not eat, wear, experiment on, use for entertainment or abuse animals in any way.

So PETA's problem is well beyond the sick and cruel murdering of these creatures
of which Vick and others are allegedly guilty. Dogfighting for entertainment, or
any other use of animals for entertainment, is itself, for PETA, cruelty.

If it's relevant to look for any kind of logic here, why would it be decent
entertainment to watch hulks of men ram the daylights out of each other as they
move a ball across a field, but cruel to watch dogs fight? Why would the NFL
sign on to such a thing?

More specifically, among PETA's prohibitions, is the use of animal skins. The
ball, as in football, is an inflated leather object endearingly called the
"pigskin."

Why does PETA oppose existing NFL conduct policy, and not football itself?

J.C. Watts, Chuck Colson and others have asked why abuse of dogs is outrageous
to so many who see no similar outrage in the 800,000-plus abortions that occur
in the United States each year. At the most intuitive level, there is something
unsettling about an attitude for which abuse of a dog is intolerable, but women
destroying their unborn children with impunity is not a problem.
[...]
PETA provides material on its Web site to explain the rationale of the
"animal-rights" concept that drives its worldview. "When it comes to pain, love,
joy, loneliness, and fear, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy," says PETA founder
Ingrid Newkirk.

For more extensive exposition, the site refers to the writings of Princeton
philosopher Peter Singer, author of "Animal Liberation."

Now Singer has written on a great deal more than animal rights. He's the author
of "Practical Ethics," in which he offers his justifications for euthanasia,
abortion and infanticide.

According to Singer, parents should be permitted to kill a baby born with a
tragic illness or defect. In "Practical Ethics," he argues that "... the fact
that a being is a human being, in the sense of a member of the species Homo
sapiens, is not relevant to the wrongness of killing it; it is, rather,
characteristics like rationality, autonomy and self-consciousness that make a
difference. Infants lack these characteristics. Killing them, therefore, cannot
be equated with killing normal human beings, or any other self-conscious
beings."

Thus, through a long and twisted road of logic, beginning with one man's own
premises about existence, we are led to a conclusion that killing animals is an
outrage, but an infant, not.
[...]
* Star Parker is president of CURE, Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education
(www.urbancure.org) and author of three books. She can be reached at
parker@urbancure.org.

New York is Behind Massachusetts

New York is Behind Massachusetts

Is it shocking that black women discriminate against white women? Here's one area where Massachusetts leads New York. (FREDRIC U. DICKER, "'RIGHTS' WRONGED US: SUIT," New York Post, March 8, 2007) The MA Commission Against Discrimination only certifies complaints by women, homosexuals, and blacks. Persons with disabilities and white heterosexual men are never discriminated against. Ahem!
In Cambridge, MA the incubator for limousine liberals, the City's Human Rights Commission gives awards to landlords and excludes persons with disabilities from their discrimination surveys and seminars. I expect the Cambridge City Council to ban white heterosexual men soon.

Roy Bercaw, Editor
ENOUGH ROOM
Cambridge MA

'RIGHTS' WRONGED US: SUIT
By FREDRIC U. DICKER State Editor
New York Post
March 8, 2007

ALBANY - Two white women who were recently fired by the state Division of Human Rights have filed federal charges of racial and age discrimination against Gov. Spitzer's new African- American head of the agency, their lawyer said yesterday. Michele Heitzner, 60, of Brooklyn, the division's former deputy commissioner, and Martha Fur long, 63, of Bronxville, a human-resources em ployee, filed the com plaints.
They claim that Human Rights Commissioner Kumiki Gibson told them and other employees that she wanted "young folks, young people" working for her and that both were subsequently axed. They also allege - in complaints filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission - that Gibson told division staff that she is a "woman of color" who wants "diversity" brought to her agency. The Human Rights Division investigates complaints of racial discrimination, among other things. Heitzner and Furlong also alleged that Gibson told workers that she wanted division employees to provide services only to "poor people" and not to the general public.
"These are allegations of age and racial discrimination," said Jonathan Lovett, a White Plains lawyer who filed the charges. "We'll be following them up with lawsuits in federal and state courts," he added. Heitzner and Furlong contended that Gibson made her alleged statements during a conference call with division employees on Jan. 9.
Gibson once served as counsel to Vice President Al Gore and was a senior vice president at the National Urban League, Heitzner said in her complaint that she was told by Gibson "that she did not see a place for me in 'her vision.' "
Furlong said Gibson told her "that I did not 'fit' in with her plans for the division." Both women were appointed to their jobs during Republican Gov. George Pataki's administration. Attempts to reach Gibson for comment were unsuccessful.
A spokeswoman for Spitzer, Jennifer Givner, insisted the allegations in the complaints are false. "Neither age nor race plays any role in personnel decisions. Commissioner Gibson denies that anything like that happened," she said. Gibson was confirmed to her position as commissioner by the Republican-controlled Senate on Tuesday.
The Division of Human Rights enforces the state's Human Rights Law, which promises "an equal opportunity to enjoy full and productive life" to every citizen. The law prohibits discrimination in employment, housing and other sectors based on age, race, national origin, gender, sexual orientation and other specified classes.
fredric.dicker (at) nypost.com

Journalist and Government Discrimination is a Fact

Journalist and Government Discrimination is a Fact

Cambridge imitates art, where words can mean whatever the government wants them to mean, as in Alice in Wonderland. (Janice O'Leary, "If you ask them, discrimination is a fact of life," Boston Globe, City Weekly, November 19, 2006)
The Cambridge Human Rights Commission whose mission is to address discrimination holds a panel on discrimination. But the most discriminated against group, persons with disabilities are excluded from the panel. The Boston Globe editors do not notice the omission.
It is not newsworthy. Like the Boston FBI Special Agent in Charge, Robert Greenleaf said, "It didn't enter my mind," when asked about 19 murders by his informants, the Globe editors can say the same thing. Is that the stupid defense? This makes sense especially since Cambridge was designated the most accessible city in August 2006, by the National Organization on Disability (NOD). Does the NOD practice similar free ranging use of words? Denying persons with disabilities access to a panel on discrimination. Yes that sounds most accessible. Students with special needs (disabilities) are ridiculed by their fellow students because they are in special classes.
But when the Human Rights Commission hears a panel on discrimination that is not an issue. And the reason is what?
--
Roy Bercaw, Editor
ENOUGH ROOM
Cambridge MA USA

CAMBRIDGE
If you ask them, discrimination is a fact of life
By Janice O'Leary,
Boston Globe Correspondent
November 19, 2006

Nearly one-third of students at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School say they feel discriminated against in stores and restaurants in Cambridge and almost half say racial discrimination in the city is a serious problem. Last month , the Cambridge Human Rights Commission released data from a survey taken in June of 515 high school students of all ethnicities.
At a panel event in the school's cafeteria for students to discuss the issue, several students said they believed guidance counselors at the school could do more to promote achievement among students of color. Nacar Reyes-Ramirez , a senior who is enrolled in Advanced Placement classes, which are the most advanced level, said she was originally put in unchallenging classes last year when she moved to Cambridge from Puerto Rico.
"Before they met me, I was placed in all ESL classes," she said. After she told administrators the classes were too easy, "they put me in college prep classes," which are the high school's standard track.
"I only found out about AP classes from my friends, not the counselors." "Appearance has a lot to do with how much time adults spend with you," she added. If you wear "baggy pants " or speak with accented English, " they may not even mention AP classes to you."
The three adult panelists, one from the business community, one from the school and one from the police department, mostly listened, asking few questions. The survey didn't ask how many students experienced discrimination at school, but asked how many "experienced the school as racially integrated." Eighty-three percent of white students said they think the high school is racially integrated; only 62 and 58 percent of African-American or Latino students respectively viewed Rindge and Latin as racially integrated.
At the Oct. 26 event, the mother of one Rindge and Latin student expressed concern that only a handful of white students showed up. In an interview, Ceendy Moscova , a junior at the school, said white students didn't attend because "they don't feel discriminated against. They think it's not their issue or they say they're too busy."
Laurance Kimbrough, a special education teacher at the high school and one of the panelists, said one of the best ways for white students and students of color to get to know each other is in class. "We have lots of white kids in honors and AP, lots of students of color in CP" (college prep) , Kimbrough said.
"If we continue with these divisions we won't bridge gaps. Students need to feel like they know each other better, which they can do if more students of color are talking with white students in classes. That's one way we as a school could work on this." Several students were quick to say that students have a responsibility to bridge gaps and seek out academic challenges. "It's not fair just to blame adults for poor education. It's up to you to take a chance ," said Tsion Girum , a junior.
"But if we had more adults inspiring students instead of giving up on them, we could achieve more." Seventy percent of Latino students, and two-thirds of African - American and Asian students, said they were treated with less respect than others at least once a year in Cambridge because of their ethnicity.
Many of the students criticized the MBTA. "Adult T drivers give students a hard time, " said Katia Barthelemy , a junior. She described being hassled by one driver who did not believe she was a student when she was trying to buy a student discount pass. "The behavior of the bus drivers is just as bad," she said. "They think they have all this power." The cafeteria rang with applause.