Pretty much everywhere you look on the intertubes this morning, you see that most of the police force and city office executive staff of Parma, Missouri quit yesterday because the new mayor is a black woman and it’s a town full of redneck racists who just couldn’t stand having a black person in charge. (The ex-mayor of 37 years claims they all resigned for “safety concerns.) Mentioned casually and at the end of every article I could find — if mentioned at all –is the tidbit that all of the city computers were wiped clean.
It’s tempting to conflate Parma with another Missouri city we’ve read about in the news recently and deduce that this is a case of easily mockable racism. And it’s possible that everyone of those city and police employees that turned in their resignations is racist. But even if that is the case, every bit or my Risk Manger DNA is telling me that the resignations and wiped computers didn’t happen because “Yay White People.”
I’m betting you all you right now: We’re going to find out there was some deep, deep corruption that could lead to hefty jail time for the people who’ve been running Prama
I agree on the corruption but not the jail time. I suspect it’s pretty banal graft. The kind of thing that could be proven, and prosecuted, if we were dealing with a mayor of St. Louis or some other important place. I’m not sure how much effort is going to be spent trying to go after the former town leadership of Parma.Report
Possible, but I suspect you’re wrong. If the corruption is something as simple as hiring friends in an inordinately inefficient way, I’m not sure you have to wipe all of the computers. If I had to bet $20, I’d put my money on some kind of racketeering.Report
Vocabulary error on my part.
I was actually thinking of racketeering when I wrote that. At least as a possibility. Time cards for hours never worked (especially in the case of the officers), some projects that were only vaguely done and not particularly necessary. Things like that.Report
When I was in law school, my evidence professor told us about her time in the Justice Department. One thing they were looking in was why one small county Sheriff’s office in Kentucy was so fiercely competed for. Turns out that drug dealers liked to traffic drugs through a small rural airport there and the people going for the Sheriff positions knew this and were fighting hard to get the bribery money.Report
Is Parma’s sister city Kiev? (They’re both famous for their chicken recipes.)Report
Well played. And much better than the “in the pockets of Big Parma” line I opted to junk before posting.Report
That would have just been cheesy.Report
and grating.Report
Will Parma will the prize for smallest town or entiry to ever experience curruption if you’re right?Report
I kinda hope that Defeated, TN was really corrupt at some point, just because it goes well with the name.Report
FWIW, corruption is how I had it pegged, without knowing about the wiped computers. Not to say that they aren’t racist rednecks, too, of course…Report
@tod-kelly
Do you have any evidence that the folks in Parma are either racist rednecks or corrupt? You forgot to mention that they are republicans as well.Report
No, he doesn’t, which is why he did not say they were. He merely said that the possibility exists, but the more likely reason for the mass resignation has little to do with personal attitudes & much more with CYA.Report
Then why even bring it up? Liberals can’t seem to help themselves from inserting race into everything.Report
He brought it up because the media brought it up. Further, he brought it up to suggest that race isn’t actually the issue here, but likely corruption is.
But you seem to object to the insinuation of race or corruption, and perhaps view a sudden mass-resignation and the destruction of city property as a perfectly reasonable response from which we cannot assume ill-intent.Report
Sometimes I think it might be nice to have a simple narrative in your head that explains everything, no matter the details.Report
“Sometimes I think it might be nice to have a simple narrative in your head that explains everything, no matter the details”
Like racism?Report
Yes, in fact.Report
@tod-kelly
They say that ignorance is bliss.Report
Really, i read the huffpo piece and no mention of race or corruption.
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/7097110Report
Shouldn’t you be going on about the fact that they mentioned her race in the headline and how the liberal media makes everything about race?Report
Will,
You beat me to it. But yeah – if the Huffpo piece was entirely neutral on the topic it wouldn’t have mentioned the race or the gender of the new mayor. I mean, why can’t liberals be gender blind as well as color blind? Conservatives do it? Is it really too much to ask?
Damn liberals…Report
Will and Still
Most of the headlines seem to mention she is black to emphasize that she is the first black female mayor. Personally, im not sure why it matters or that it even should matter, what her sex and ethnicity are. Presumably folks voted for her becuse they thoughtshe was competent. This certainly a different case than were you see local news media decline to mention the ethnicity of ciminal suspects.Report
“Eyewitness News- Our top story tonight-
Entire Local Police Department Mysteriously Resigns!
In other, entirely unrelated news, the town’s first black female police chief wins election.
In other, even more way totally unrelated news, a mystery virus appears to have wiped out the police and municipal computers.
Now here’s Johnny with the weather….”Report
Lwa
You might actually be funny if you could get the basic facts right. I dont suppose that is too much to ask?Report
Ah, yes. This is clearly one of those times where the liberal mainstream media totally never says anything at all about that subject they always talk about even right here. They’re very tricky that way.Report
You know, a quote from the former mayor suggests that he fully expected to win, and it was “the black turnout” in response to a recent taser incident that put her in office. And one of the officers who resigned did so because he thought posts celebrating her win on facebook made him feel like he was in danger and wouldn’t be able to do his job; though there’s no actual evidence of a facebook threat offered.Report
Tod’s not a Liberal.
Liberals can’t seem to help themselves from inserting race into everything.
I think that’s because race is an issue in just about everything, actually. Maybe not the most important thing, but a thing. (Thingy thingness gestating the world…)Report
I’m with you on this, but I am thinking something on the lines of Bell CA:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Bell_scandal
And where can we send our $20 to get in on the pool?Report
I heard about this reading this post.
Corruption was my first thought. Why? I recall reading about another small town in Florida or Cali that had all kinds of corruption problems. This struck a note.Report
Those small towns all look alike to you, don’t they?
Geographist..
🙂Report
Okay, so all these people resigned, and now the “hard drive are erased” and now no resignation letters?
Does even make sense? Or did some twit erase the Commodore 64 by accident?Report