A lawsuit against St. Louis, Missouri, its mayor, Tishaura Jones, and another official, claims a candidate for police chief didn't get the job due to racism. If this were yet another attack on affirmative action, this would be the moment where you roll your eyes and move onto the next story. But this case is different because, well, the candidate—a white officer—lost the job not to a minority, but rather, wait for it, another white cop!
The bizarre story is being reported at The Daily Beast, which details the saga of Michael Sack, a police officer in St. Louis since 1994, who was gunning for the police chief job that at one point was down to two candidates, both white. Sack claims in his lawsuit he was told the city wanted candidates to reflect the city's diversity and that this was the reason he didn't get hired despite having a perfect score on the written test. (Aside: Since when is a written test the best way to hire a police chief?)
Related: When the Only Thing You Have Going Is Being White
Sack did serve as interim police chief last year after the previous chief's retirement, but was not promoted to the job permanently; the position went to an outside white candidate when, reportedly, two additional candidates who were Black ended up not wanting the job.
Sack, The Daily Beast reports, says he's suffering from mental anguish, humiliation, and loss of enjoyment of life, which, incidentally, sound like elements that would be part of the police chief job description.
This isn't the only problem St. Louis has been dealing with: In March, the city was ordered to pay $300,000 in a racial discrimination case also involving the police department.
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