Reynolds Rap

An Open Letter to Omaha City Council

Dear Mayor Stothert and Members of the Omaha City Council:

As documented in videos of city council meetings, various members of the Omaha City Council disagree with my fact-based editorials about the Empowerment Network, and have even wrongly assailed me as a malcontent. Noticeably absent from these overtly emotional rants are facts that accurately, solidly pinpoint errors in my consistently objective critiques. Why didn’t you take time to:

1. investigate the facts I presented, which were not created by me, but independently produced by well-known and iconic White-owned, White-controlled businesses (Omaha World-Herald, Gallup, Pew Research, New York Times, etc.) and organizations (U.S. Census, University of Nebraska, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Center for Economic Development, Center for Disease Control, Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, etc.); and

2. challenge the Empowerment Network to do what I did, present an analytical, apples-to-apples, fact-based assessment of its alleged success, year-by-year over the past fifteen-(15) years? Shouldn’t the Empowerment Network be held “accountable” for truth-in-advertising? Why is the Empowerment Network allowed to constantly move the “goal posts” that define the socio-economic status of Black people in Omaha solely to deceitfully elevate it’s value? You’re okay with that, really?

Kill the messenger? Okay.

Here are facts, unedited, taken directly from Councilman Brinker Harding’s campaign web site.

As a “fourth generation Omahan committed to serving “all” of Omaha’s citizens dating back to Mayor Hal Daub, what exactly, if anything did Brinker Harding do, especially for people of color? Daub was Mayor of Omaha from January 1995 – January 2001, and Brinker Harding was there as Mayor Daub’s Chief of Staff. Again, Brinker Harding was there; so why didn’t he and Mayor Daub clean-up Omaha’s Police Department?

1982 - Can Councilman Harding provide facts that he and Mayor Daub did not ignore the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights ninety-two-(92) page report, which was produced during Michael Boyle’s term as Mayor of Omaha, “Police-Community Relations in Omaha” from 1982 (below)?

1994 - Can Councilman Harding provide facts that he and Mayor Daub did not ignore the “Community Policing and Special Operations Bureau” report, which was produced immediately before Hal Daub became mayor, during P.J. Morgan’s term as Mayor of Omaha from 1994 (below)?

2006 – If Councilman Harding possesses facts that he and Mayor Daub reviewed and implemented the research and recommendations from his political predecessors, why after nearly twenty-five-(25) years did Tristan Bonn, Public Safety Auditor for the City of Omaha, report the same character and scope of negative, abusive community policing in “Anatomy of Traffic Stops” in October 2006 (below)?

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Did “things” get better after 2006? FACT: In 2010, one of every four drivers pulled over by Omaha police officers was Black. Omaha Police Department stops and arrests Black drivers at rates higher than their proportion of the population. Source: Martha Stoddard, Omaha World Herald, April 6, 2010.

If Councilman Harding was a Black “fourth generation” resident of Omaha, shouldn’t he expect some improvement in the character and scope of policing from the mayoral administrations of Boyle to Morgan to Daub to Fahey to Suttle to Stothert? Well, Mayor Stothert and members of the Omaha City Council, the “data” does not reveal any significant generational improvement in policing or incarcerations specific to people of color. Why is that? If you were a Black “fourth generation” resident of Omaha, you’d see the Empowerment Network for what it truly is, a self-serving group of pseudo-intellectual Black folks who’ve been anointed by Omaha’s politically and financially affluent White people as the “mouthpiece” to represent Omaha’s Black residents. Why do non-minorities constantly “anoint” a specific Black person or group to unilaterally represent all Black people, while such condescending and racist labeling is not applied to White people? Why is that?

So, Mr. Harding, what did you and Mayor Daub do other than pass-the-buck? In the absence of facts, it clearly appears that you and Mayor Hal Daub satiated in the same kind of indifference and/or mediocrity and/or White-washing of data as evidenced by the Empowerment Network. Surely, the aforementioned is not the kind of role model you want for your daughters, Elizabeth and Grace.

Instead of directly addressing the well-documented predilection of Omaha police to arrest, beat, and incarcerate people of color, especially Black people, at levels significantly greater than White people, in its 15th Annual State of North Omaha report, those Negroes at the Empowerment Network "allowed" the White-washing of all data presented by Omaha's Chief of Police.

>> All data presented was "generic" to the entire city of Omaha.

>> An accumulative, chronological update on traffic stops was not provided.

>> An accumulative, chronological update on Black homicide victimization was not provided.

>> An accumulative, chronological update of police data specific to North Omaha was not provided.

Omaha’s White-owned, White-controlled mainstream print, broadcast (television and radio), and related social media treat the Empowerment Network like Teflon, untouchable, refusing to conduct any investigative journalism, even with the likelihood of negligent management. Likewise, due to its stature as the “anointed” representative for Black people in Omaha, the extremely limited minority owned and controlled print, broadcast, and social media do not conduct any investigative journalism to assess the veracity of the Empowerment Network. Given the aforementioned media vacuum, and consistent with the Free Speech component of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, it’s my practice to objectively and factually critique the veracity of the Empowerment Network.

If there are errors in my critique, tell me, and I’ll gladly correct any and all errors in my editorials, and gladly make a corresponding public apology – even before the Omaha City Council. Unfortunately, that’s not about to happen, because:

(1) cowardly acts to assail me do not eliminate the facts I’ve reported;

(2) "truth" is an absolute defense to claims of libel, slander, defamation, etc., because one of the elements that must be proven in a defamation suit is falsity of the statement; if a statement is true, it cannot be false, and therefore, there is no prima facie case of defamation; and

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(3) as validated by the City of Omaha’s EEO-4 and the EEO-1s of all employers in Omaha, Nebraska’s public and private sector employers are not and have never been particularly diverse or receptive to AA/EEO/ADA or the Johnny-come-lately update of DEI.

In the latest public sector EEO-4 report of 2019 for Nebraska, for all "New Hire Employment" at city, county, and state public sector jobs, forty-six-(46) people were hired into the top level of Officials, Administrators, Senior Managers, etc., and all 46 were White; no Blacks, no Hispanics, no Asians, no Native Americans, etc. https://www.eeoc.gov/equal-employment-opportunity-commission-state-and-local-government-information-eeo-4-2019-19

In the latest private sector EEO-1 report of 2018 for Nebraska, for 1,822 employers covering 389,620 employees, only twenty-three-(23) Black men and twenty-five-(25) Black women are employed as "Executive/Senior Level Officials & Managers," and only 490 Black men and 325 Black women are employed as "First/Mid Level Officials & Managers." https://www.eeoc.gov/statistics/employment/jobpatterns/eeo1/2018/states-industries/table?state=28&naics=

Instead of working with a greater diversity of qualified Black people, the City of Omaha continues to intentionally “limit” its commitment and partnerships with Black citizens through the buffoonery and nepotism constantly demonstrated by members of Empowerment Network. As a subject matter expert in all human resource disciplines, which includes municipal governments and public and private sector employers considerably more diverse, complex, and larger than the City of Omaha, my fact-based editorials about the Empowerment Network and the Omaha City Council are provided freely as a public service to citizens of Omaha. Please, there’s no need to thank me; I’m happy to help!

So, given your commitment to the Empowerment Network, the recent fiasco caused by John Ewing is acceptable? Really?

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Tis. Tis. Tis.

I welcome your feedback.

Trip Reynolds
trip.reynolds@yahoo.com

First Amendment to the United States Constitution - Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.