An expert on recruitment of Jews for the city’s police force said that court rulings suspending appointment of 381 new police officers this month unless half of them are Block and Hispanic means that almost half of the qualified Jewish candidates will be “bumped” if the lower court ruling is allowed to stand.
Louis Weiser, a retired police officer who is president of the Council of Jewish Organizations in Civil Service, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency several days ago that 18 Jewish candidates — two of them Orthodox women — were among the 380 candidates appointed to the force in December.
Weiser, who has been a key figure in two campaigns to recruit Jewish police candidates — one in 1973 and one in 1979 — said that on the basis of the proportion of Jews among the 380 named in December, 18 to 20 Jewish candidates could have been counted on as being among the 380 appointees for January, if the courts had not ordered a stay in the appointments unless the department was willing to accept what Weiser called a quota order.
The legal battle began when the Guardians Association, representing Black officers, and the Hispanic Society of Police Officers filed suit in federal court, contending the examination for police given last June was discriminatory, purportedly because it was essentially a test of reading and therefore biased against minority members who were at a disadvantage because of the allegedly inferior education they had received in New York City schools.
CITY ASKS FOR A STAY
Federal Judge Robert Carter issued a ruling on Jan. 11 that no appointments could be mode unless half of the appointees were Black and Hispanic. In a brief submitted to the Federal Court of Appeals for the Second District, the city last Monday asked the court to stay Carter’s preliminary injunction and permit appointments to the force while the city’s appeal was being heard. The Appeals Court refused to lift the temporary injunction but did promise to expedite a hearing on the city’s appeal and set a date for that hearing for Feb. 5.
The situation thereupon became one giving the city the choice of accepting the quota order or refraining from making appointments pending the final court determination of the issue. It was expected that whether the Appeals Court rules for or against the quota ruling, the losing side will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Mayor Edward Koch and Police Commissioner Robert McGuire issued a statement that they considered the June tests fair and job-related and reiterated that the city would press its appeal. Mayor Koch said “we will never, unless required by the courts or federal law, run this city with quotas.”
Weiser stressed that the Jewish candidates who passed all the required examinations, mental and physical, who have not been appointed, would remain on the hiring list but, he added, “I have already received calls from some of the young Jews on the list, telling me they are concerned about how long they will have to wait.”
As of last Oct. 30, Weiser had reported to the JTA, in discussing the second drive to recruit Jews, that there were some 700 Jews on the force, including 30 women, totaling less than two percent of the force, far below the Jewish proportion of New York City’s population. Weiser estimated then that of the 1200 Jews who took the June test, 600 to 650 passed, including 150 women. He also estimated that no more than 200 Jews would pass the other tests — medical, psychological and physical — and receive listing for appointment.
Given attrition and losses by retirement, Weiser said, the result could be even fewer Jewish officers than before the recruiting drive. Several days ago he said that the quota ruling, if it is not overruled, and the certainty that some successful Jewish candidates will quit the list because of delays, will help to assure a net drop in the number of Jewish police officers during the four year life of the current list.
COALITION TO FIGHT RULING
A coalition of police and civil service groups announced it will seek to enter a friend of the court brief in support of the city and in opposition to the ruling by Carter, Weiser reported.
A statement issued by seven organizations comprising the coalition declared that “the decision is undemocratic, does not conform to the facts and is divisive. New York City is a melting put of many ethnic and religious groups, none of which have ever sought preferential treatment. No preference should ever be granted to any group because of race, color or creed, since most police applicants, white and Black, have suffered from the same social and economic disadvantages.
“We deplore the confrontation between groups that will result if Judge Carter’s decision is implemented. Individuals must be judged on their merit and if democracy and the public is to be served, candidates for the police department must be selected on the basis of ability.”
The statement was signed by Columbia Association, New York City Police Department; Emerald Society of the New York City Police Deportment; Shomrim Society of the Police Department; Pulaski Association; Grand Council of Steuben Associations; National Conference of Shomrim Societies; and Council of Jewish Organizations in Civil Service.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
