There's a new sheriff in town!

Someone please explain to me why this isn't making front-page headlines. On his first day on the job, the new sheriff, who is black, fired white police officers so he could replace them with blacks. Yes, you read that right.

Eventually the above link will go bad, so here's the synopsis: on his first day as the newly elected sheriff of Clayton County, Georga, Victor Hill, who is black, called in 27 employees, including the four highest ranking officers (who are white). He took away their badges and fired them all, handing out photocopied letters of dismissal. (Wording of the article makes it unclear whether all 27 of the fired employees were white). They were escorted from the building under the watch of rooftop snipers. Some of the deputies were taken home in prisoner transport vans. He told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that "the employees work at the pleasure of the sheriff," that it was necessary to "maintain the integrity of the department," and their replacements would be black.

Okay... it's true that race relations in Georgia aren't exactly rosy. I could believe that the first black sheriff in that county would meet with resistance from white police officers. But come on! He has not given any specific justification for firing these 27 people. He has offered no proof that the employees were dangerous or uncooperative. He has not been in office long enough to establish a pattern of insubordination or threat to make these people worthy of the treatment they were given. In short, they were fired for being white.

If the situation were reversed, and a white sheriff was firing black employees to make room for whites, you know the NAACP would be all over the news, calling this an outrage. And rightly so. But this news item is just a curiosity. Who's protesting? No one. The Houston Chronicle barely gave it a blurb on January 5, and didn't even mention the racial component of the story. What gives? All these groups who claim to be opposed to racial profiling and discrimination, where are you? Do you really believe all discrimination and racial profiling is bad? Or is it okay when the victims are white?