Florida Police Chief, Larry Scirotto, was fired by the City Manager, Chris Lagerbloom, March 3rd, according to a press release. The report followed several discrimination complaints that alleged Scirotto, 48, made hiring and promotion decisions with an illegal race-based approach.
Larry Scirotto, a former assistant chief in Pittsburgh, was the first openly gay chief hired in Fort Lauderdale and is of a mixed-race background. Why is that important information? Those are a lot of boxes checked off on one person and that, typically, means activism is boiling in the person’s veins as we’ve seen so many times in the past 6 or so years.
This couldn’t be closer to the truth with Mr. Scirotto as there have been many complaints in his 6 months of duty with Fort Lauderdale. The complaints say Scirotto unfairly focused on minority candidates and passed over “white” candidates simply based on their race. It’s confirmed (even by himself) that Scirotto made a comment about the conference room wall of photos saying it was “too white” and that he would “change that.”
The 12-page report also notes that during a promotion period, Scirotto had said “which one is blacker?” The report goes on to say that Scirotto was quoted as saying he intended to “consider diversity at every opportunity.” Scirotto has denied the “which one is blacker” comment but has held firm on defending himself for the other comments. Per the investigative report, “He said the context of the comment is built around ‘how do I convince the community that we are an inclusive and diverse organization if this wall is so white?'”
Scirotto may not understand that even if you think you were doing it for a good reason, it’s still racist and biased and highly illegal. It seems the activism being programmed into people is keeping them ignorant of the law. Get woke, go broke.
In total, the investigation included 21 witnesses, including the chief, and all gave a consistent narrative to investigators about Scirotto’s hiring and promotion practices, according to the report. The investigation also concluded that “almost every witness was dissatisfied,” with Scirotto’s approach, and “most believed that Chief Scirotto made clear his intention to promote based on race, gender or sexual orientation.”
On March 4th, Fort Lauderdale City Manager, Chris Lagerbloom, said that the diversity promotions and processes had been conducted illegally.
“We strive to be diverse in our organization. We strive to represent the community that we serve. There’s just certain lawful ways to allow that diversity to happen,” Lagerbloom said, according to 7News. He added, “and in this case, the investigative report indicated we didn’t quite follow the law in how we were working towards those diverse positions.”
The firing came after two Fort Lauderdale police officers, in October, alleged they had been passed over for promotions based on race, sexual orientation and gender, according to the Sun Sentinel. In response, Lagerbloom reportedly put a halt to promotions in order to “address concerns surrounding the recent police department promotions.”
Scirotto is now considering about taking legal actions…
of coarse he is.
