Yes you don’t hire parolee murderers and child rapers – that’s easy. But you also don’t hire people you have reason to believe are druggies and organized crime (gangs). There are times when you reject the entire list and go create a new civil service list. And guess what – you don’t hire people with gang tattoos and you don’t hire people related to, living with or associated with people who are likely area gang members. Duhhh.

Having said that it’s a tragedy when grown men who may be supporting families have to be fired. But being a hiring authority doesn’t give you the license to use your office to dispense indulgences or charity at the expense of the public, the children and the treasury’s safety.

This is why Ron Dellums’ public attempts to open public service to felons is so significant. The schools are dealing with children (pedophiles are attracted to them, people) and all the data – identity data – that is so sought after by organized crime (that’s the gangs, people) and the equipment and buildings that can be stolen or burned. The schools can’t afford any wavering on security, including that wavering that comes with racial preferences and race-based hiring and retention.

All involved in education need to fight the tendencies to water down security. The district rules need to be strenghtened to impose duties on staff to report any knowledge of criminal charges or arrests of self or other staff under pain of possible dismissal for failure to do so. It’s too bad you have to make explicit rules about fidelity which should be common decency but nowadays people don’t know how they are supposed to act.

It’s not just the perpetrators who benefit from the crimes. Even though they’ll deny it, family members and friends usually know what is going on, either specifically or vaguely, and they happily go along with it because they enjoy the generosity of their criminal associates. Other beneficiaries are the otherwise (mostly) law abiding people who purchase the stolen goods, either out of the trunk of a car in the parking lot of Wal-Mart or elsewhere.

The same goes for all the drug activity in this city. The users (and there are many, many) are 50% responsible for the crime caused by drug dealing. Of course, the oh-so-innocent family and friends of the drug dealers benefit from the profits, too.

It takes two to tango. It’s too bad that so many people in our community love to do that dance.