Police Force (mostly) quits after Black Women elected Mayor

[Crossroads Inc.]

You can't make this shit up!
Huffington Post

Most of the police force and several officials resigned after the small town of Parma, Missouri elected its first African American woman as mayor, reported KFVS.

Tyrus Byrd, a former city clerk, was officially sworn in as mayor on Tuesday after beating incumbent Randall Ramsey. Ramsey had served as mayor of Parma for 37 years under two terms.

The outgoing mayor said five of the city's six police officers submitted their resignation, citing "safety concerns." Parma's city attorney, clerk and water treatment supervisor also quit.


Some Parma residents say they aren't worried about safety now that the police force has shrunk. "I think it's pretty dirty they all quit without giving her a chance," resident Martha Miller told KFVS. "But I don't think they hurt the town any by quitting, because who needs six police for 740 people."

At her swearing in ceremony, Byrd said that she is looking to getting things in order for the city.

As noted this is a VERY small town, less than 1000 people.
Still I'd Say Audit their books. Then Audit them again. I mean how do these people NOT realize just how bad this makes them look?

[Tribble]

They knew exactly what they were doing. They simply don't want to have to serve a black person. And they are probably trying to set a precedent for other small police forces to follow: don't vote for the black person, or else your town's police force just might quit on you.

[Patroklos]

We are assuming this is because she is black why? I note the article has zero details about the mayor elect's platform or history in government or the police officers stated motivation saying anything racist. So has a small town government never resigned before an incoming white candidate?

[Titan Uranus]

I would like to find out more about this, but every story (except a pair of local reports that don't really go into detail) is the same, right down to similar or identical lines in some of the pieces.

For all we know this woman ran on a campaign of reducing the size of the police department, it certainly is a large department for a town of 740, and the coppers and other officials quit in protest of that. That certainly would fit with some of the residents stating that the force was too large for a town their size.
Alternatively it may be corruption, as you say, the only information besides her picture and the fact that she is black that I can find is that she ran on the popular favorite of "cleaning up the town", but she might have ment it more honestly than most.

However I do not know anything more because Every Single Article just blithely assumes that the resignations occured because she is black without bothering to do even the most basic journalism to back it up.

If anyone can correct me, please do so, as I am on my phone and cannot fully check.

[Ralin]

And they are probably trying to set a precedent for other small police forces to follow: don't vote for the black person, or else your town's police force just might quit on you.

Because obviously the best way for police to maintain their power and privileges is to resign from the position that they're derived from?

Yeah, I'm going to have to agree. It's eyebrow raising but there are a lot of other possible explanations. Including the previous mayor being Boss Hog and his cronies deciding now would be a good time to get scarce.

On that note...

Ramsey had served as mayor of Parma for 37 years under two terms.

What? He served two terms that lasted 37 years between them? How does that work?

[Grumman]

We are assuming this is because she is black why? I note the article has zero details about the mayor elect's platform or history in government or the police officers stated motivation. Convienience.

I would expect the police to want to make their position known if they have legitimate grounds to oppose her election, given that they've already made a public statement by quitting en masse. If she's corrupt I wouldn't cite "safety concerns", I'd say outright that I'm quitting because she's corrupt and I won't do her dirty work.

[Ralin]

What if "safety concerns" means "New mayor might prosecute us for all the crimes the old mayor had our back on?

[TheHammer]

They knew exactly what they were doing. They simply don't want to have to serve a black person. And they are probably trying to set a precedent for other small police forces to follow: don't vote for the black person, or else your town's police force just might quit on you.

Evidence for that speculation? Aside from the police, you also had city attorney, clerk, and water treatment supervisor quit. Maybe she is just a known pain in the ass that people don't want to work with/for. Or perhaps this was a "You can't fire me, I quit" scenario if the incoming mayor had promised to "clean house" if elected.

Either way, there is absolutely zero evidence at this point that it is racially motivated based on the article posted.

[Simon_Jester]

Then that would not be a legitimate reason for them to quit.

The point is that if they had a reason they wanted to make public they'd cite it in their decision to quit.

[TheHammer]

Presuming you addressed this to me:

Then that would not be a legitimate reason for them to quit.

The point is that if they had a reason they wanted to make public they'd cite it in their decision to quit.

Not wanting to work for the new mayor is a perfectly legitimate reason to quit. She was a former city clerk, so its not as though she was a stranger to the people who resigned. If she was considered a pain in the ass to work with, incompetent, or if she'd left under bad terms such that they knew her being in power would create an undesirable work environment, I can see why people would just not want to work with her. Presuming "racism" when a black mayor was elected in a town that is 59% white seems rather dubious to me. I'm not completely ruling it out, but the presumption is being made with no evidence whatsoever.

There are certainly people we've all worked with as co-workers in the past, that should they suddenly become our "boss" we would find employment elsewhere as soon as we had the means. Quite frankly, I'm curious as to how a "city" of 740 could afford all of that staff (police et al). to begin with... Once has to wonder how many of those positions were unpaid volunteers - making it easy to resign when they found themselves working for someone they didn't want to work for.

[General Zod]

What if the cops who quit were getting special privileges and kickbacks that they knew they wouldn't be able to maintain under the new mayor?

[Elheru Aran]

Six cops seems like a reasonable amount of police for a town of 1 thousand (they almost certainly served people outside the city limits to some extent). That's enough to ensure coverage should there be a major ruckus or a couple of them get sick. Sixteen might be pushing it, but six? Nah.

This story really suffers from a lack of detail, though. We don't know enough about what's going on there, just the kneejerk "they elected a black woman and then a bunch of people quit, therefore RACIST".

[Ralin]

And white people resigning en masse from positions of power and authority seems like a really ineffective way of preserving the white power structure

[TheHammer]

Six cops seems like a reasonable amount of police for a town of 1 thousand (they almost certainly served people outside the city limits to some extent). That's enough to ensure coverage should there be a major ruckus or a couple of them get sick. Sixteen might be pushing it, but six? Nah.

This story really suffers from a lack of detail, though. We don't know enough about what's going on there, just the kneejerk "they elected a black woman and then a bunch of people quit, therefore RACIST".

Its a town of 700 not 1000. They may seem like a nitpick, bit its a 30% difference. Six full-time officers would be an extremely high officer to population ratio, but I'm presuming at least some of them are part time. In any event, plenty of towns that size have zero police force - they are covered via county or state police.

And yeah its very knee jerk because had she been a white male the exact same scenario could have happened for a variety of reasons. It's not exactly unprecedented, particularly in small towns where the positions are unpaid or paid so little, that its just not worth the trouble when it becomes a toxic work environment for whatever reason:
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/n ... p/7091505/

What if the cops who quit were getting special privileges and kickbacks that they knew they wouldn't be able to maintain under the new mayor?

Its possible, but one has to wonder what sort of perks/kickbacks a town of 700 can actually provide. It seems the presumption is that all of these staff quit because they were doing something unethical, when its at least as likely that they simply had bad experiences working with the new mayor before (in her role as City clerk), or with her father (former city council member) and have decided that working for her wasn't worth the trouble. If there were abused privileges or kickbacks, then there should be some journalistic investigation of that aspect, or some other evidence to support it before the assertion is made.

[madd0ct0r]

from the comments on the origional KFVS article. I have not bothered to dox the commenter, if it's false the result will be known by tomorrow.

[General Zod]

Its possible, but one has to wonder what sort of perks/kickbacks a town of 700 can actually provide. It seems the presumption is that all of these staff quit because they were doing something unethical, when its at least as likely that they simply had bad experiences working with the new mayor before (in her role as City clerk), or with her father (former city council member) and have decided that working for her wasn't worth the trouble. If there were abused privileges or kickbacks, then there should be some journalistic investigation of that aspect, or some other evidence to support it before the assertion is made.

That sort of thing would take a detailed look at the town's financial records.

[bilateralrope]

I see two possibilities for this. The first is racism. The second is that they were involved in something very illegal and decided to run the moment they knew that any protection they couldn't rely on the previous mayor to protect them.

[Joun_Lord]

None of the articles I've read say anything about the racial make-up of the officers who quit. If they are all white bread good ol' boys who quit then it could be racism. Of course it might not even then, race might not have had anything to do with it even if all the quitting cops were white.

I know because of experience we, atleast in regards to Murica, tend to think there is always a racist element when it comes to cases of cross-racial incidents but occasionly, sometimes, maybe one time, it might not be anything but a relatively normal affair (as normal as a bunch of possibly corrupt cops quitting over a possibly extremely hard to work with person can be) that has nothing to do with the skin color of those involved.

I bet the one remaining cop is having a fun time. Probably is getting shit from his former comrades in arms for not quitting too and is probably worried that people are going to use the "no cops" shit to try something.

[LaCroix]

Is there any way to find out if Parma police is one of those who are especially heavy-handed with these civil forfeiture laws, per chance? I found some articles giving me that vibe, but you know - anectodes vs. data...

[RogueIce]

This incident is really lacking in good journalism as opposed to a bunch of sites going with the "COPS QUIT OVER BLACK MAYOR" obvious clickbait. For instance, depending on the article, I've seen the "safety concerns" line attributed to the city's attorney, clerk and wastewater supervisor, not the police. Such as this article from a local news station. Who also resigned it should be noted but most people seem to be ignoring that over the police officers.

Another source (I think one of the KFVS videos) stated it was two full-time and three part-time officers who resigned.

As far as the number of officers, I seem to recall it being said somewhere that five is the bare minimum required to provide 24 hour police service: 1 officer per 8 hour shift with the other 2 for sick days, vacations, etc. If that was their setup I guess the 6th might have been their Chief of Police who was expected to do administrative stuff than patrol? Or an extra for whatever, considering half of their officers were part-time anyway.

As for their reasons, who knows? With a small town like that and a mayor who apparently served for nearly 40 years, it could be simple good ol' boy cronyism and they would have quit over any new mayor - or at least one not 'endorsed' by the old mayor, had he retired (he was running again and lost in this case) - so the race of the incoming mayor could be entirely coincidental. But it makes for great clickbait headlines so...

[Prannon]

This story - and the commentary around it - is heavily reminding me of some drama that happened in Wilmer, TX some years back. Wilmer is a small town just outside of Dallas where my grandparents have basically lived my entire life.

Few years back, some newcomer got elected to office in the town and beat the town's establishment candidate. The idea was to have an outsider serve and root out all of the corruption that was endemic to the town at the time. The establishment responded by:

1) Having the city counsel select a City Administrator who would basically take on all of the roles of the mayor, entirely circumventing the elected mayor.
2) Locking the new mayor out of her office.

And some other things that I don't recall.

Anyway, point is that this sounds like good ol' boy everybody knows each other and no one ever really competes in elections small town politics. Corrupt as can be.

[biostem]

Maybe it was just the fact that the former mayor had these out of state cops on the payroll, but didn't actually make them do anything? It could have been that there was really 1 or 2 "real" cops, who actually did whatever work was required, and the other 4 or so were just collecting paychecks - perhaps they were buddy-buddy with the old mayor. Just speculation...

[Rogue 9]

My town's police force runs twelve hour shifts. Don't know what Parma's did/does, but if it's a similar setup then six is plenty. Of course, my town is roughly three times larger and also has six officers.

[Patroklos]

How old are these employees? If they have served a simlar stint as this mayor it may just be them taking a good cue to make their own exit and not bothering to cater to a new power structure. Nothing nefarious at all. Or it may be known this new mayor has her own people she was going to shoe horn I anyway.

[bilateralrope]

Maybe it was just the fact that the former mayor had these out of state cops on the payroll, but didn't actually make them do anything? It could have been that there was really 1 or 2 "real" cops, who actually did whatever work was required, and the other 4 or so were just collecting paychecks - perhaps they were buddy-buddy with the old mayor. Just speculation...

What about the city's attorney, the clerk and the waste water treatment plant supervisor ?

The people who cited "safety concerns" as their reason for resigning.

If they were being paid, but not doing anything, then there was a serious problem. If the waste water treatment plant supervisor wasn't doing anything, then there might have been things that developed into safety concerns under his lack of watch.

How old are these employees? If they have served a simlar stint as this mayor it may just be them taking a good cue to make their own exit and not bothering to cater to a new power structure. Nothing nefarious at all. Or it may be known this new mayor has her own people she was going to shoe horn I anyway.

That doesn't explain why they would cite "safety concerns" on the way out.