Waterloo being asked to ban job bias for past crimes (DON'T discriminate against CRIMINALS!?)

Waterloo - Cedar Falls (Iowa) Courier ^ | Wednesday, June 13, 2012 | TIM JAMISON

[newgeezer]

WATERLOO, Iowa --- The city's Commission on Human Rights is pushing for an ordinance to prevent a criminal record from being used to deny a person employment.

Abraham Funchess Jr., the commission's executive director, said the city already bans job discrimination based on race, color, religion, creed, sex, national origin, sexual orientation and age.

[newgeezer]

(Emphases are mine.)

I heard about this on the Simon Conway show on WHO Radio yesterday. Equal opportunity for convicted criminals?!?! Words fail me.

[US Navy Vet]

Waterloo Iowa is a LIBERAL N/E Iowa Feceshole!

[rarestia]

It’s getting worse. They’re in a full-court press to enact the most ridiculous laws and ordinances knowing that the American people are still asleep at the wheel.

So does this necessarily preclude a business from even running a criminal background check?

This isn’t pioneering or even early-adoption. This is inane and stupid and is bound to backfire through businesses leaving the area, en masse. As a business owner, regardless of the disposition of the crime, if you’ve committed one, from simple possession all the way up to murder, it indicates that you’re willing to break the law for your own gain.

[Zeppo]

Note that these idiotic ideas are being put forward by members of the ‘political class’ - a.k.a. government criminals.

They are just working to ensure that their own jobs will be secure sometime down the road after their own criminality has been exposed.

[spaced]

I remember Arizona State government having a policy to give ex-cons a second chance. It turned out they ended up with an embezzler working on a finance system. Guess that would be fine with folks in Waterloo.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

I totally agree with the city council. A homosexual convicted of sodomizing boys should be hired as the head of Child Protective Services; convicted murderers, when released, should join the police force; convicted embezzlers should be hired by the city treasurer.

[VRWCarea51]

So you have to hire a ex-con that had his license suspended 14 times for wreckless and careless driving so he can then drive the streets with a City Vehicle? HOw about putting him behind the wheel of a DPW Dump Truck.

Yeah that’ll work. Kinda like electing a Affirmative Action President.

[brivette]

I must take exception to that. Depending on which side of the Cedar River you lived, it could be decent.

[ReformationFan]

Before you know it, just about everybody will be in a “protected class”.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Ham on wry, eh. The politician class is looking out for its own.

Anyhow, companies like banks that are specially security conscious will especially freak out. How’d Waterloo like to meet a waterloo of no more banks in town? (Or jewelers, etc.)

From the standpoint of seeking to re-employ past prisoners, especially those who had only a single offense in something petty, it would be better to offer tax breaks to firms willing to shoulder the increased risk, with the rationale that these people might otherwise prove to be welfare tax burdens and disproportionately contribute to the drain on police services. With the insane network of prohibitions in law today, who hasn’t been guilty of some crime that would threaten serious jail time were the state omniscient?

[newgeezer]

government criminals ... working to ensure that their own jobs will be secure

You may be onto something there.

[HiTech RedNeck]

And Arizona is supposedly rather conservative.

That sounds like a bureaucratic bungle. You wouldn’t want to put a past embezzler in a position with easy access to loosely accounted money any more than a recovering alcoholic should be a bartender.

[Tublecane]

Why does Waterloo, Iowa have a Commission on Human Rights?

[bill1952]

The city’s Commission on Human Rights..

WTF???

Why does a CITY need such a thing other than to burden taxpayers with the expense?

[theDentist]

FUTURE Waterloo Headline:

"Twice Convicted Pedophile Arrested in Child-Murder was Working for Parks Dept"
Parents to Sue: 'They knew his record and put him in a children's park.'

[SaraJohnson]

In the past liberal employers would hire felons and Americans were robbed, raped and murdered by service men and store clerks a dime a dozen. People began suing companies for exposing them to danger. So the practice stopped.

Now they want to make it a civil right for released felons to prey upon the public and businesses. For Americans, this would be a disaster.

[newgeezer]

Why does Waterloo, Iowa have a Commission on Human Rights?

I'm sure it's for the same reason Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has a Civil Rights Commission (maybe to appease certain special interest groups, hmm?).

At any rate, now that it exists, I'm also sure there's no way anyone who hopes to be re-elected will ever dare to suggest abolishing it.

[G Larry]

Quotas for Criminals!!!

Since they can’t read minds, that’s the only way to evaluate bias.

This is national! Not just Iowa!

“They” want convicts voting too!

[niteowl77]

Why does Waterloo, Iowa have a Commission on Human Rights?

The same reason it now has a M. L. King Jr. Drive.

Mr. niteowl77

[ex91B10]

Words should fail you because you haven't a clue.

I know a man who, about three years ago, was a junkie and was busted for sales of a controlled substance. He went into rehab and is still drug free.

He cannot even get a job as a janitor in a local health club because of his arrest, even though he has turned his life around 180 degrees.

Look at the stupid laws we have in this country; nobody in this country can go a whole day without breaking one of them, and you want to deny someone convicted of breaking one of them a legal way to make a living?

And then we wonder why the recidivism rate is so high; they've been left with no other choice.