Filed under: Political Issues, Real People, Social Issues, Today's News | Tags: crude, e-mials, lawsuit, noose, racial, sexual
Racial allegations are blazing as Secret Service supervisors shared crude sexual jokes and engaged in racially derogatory banter about blacks, and passed around an anecdote about a possible assassination of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, according to internal e-mail disclosed in a federal court filing on Friday by lawyers for black Secret Service agents.
A group of black employees filed a lawsuit that alleges that since at least 1999, black agents have been passed over for promotions because of their race. The plaintiffs also claim their white colleagues and supervisors regularly use a racial epithet to refer to criminal suspects and black leaders of other countries. The lawsuit claims the Secret Service has always had a discriminatory culture.
Eric Zahren, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said he would not comment directly on the e-mail but said the agency deplored racially insensitive jokes. The back story is actually whether the Secret Service can or will protect a black President as well as a white president adding a new spins to what has become a racially charged Presidential campaign.
Contrary to popular myth the Secret Service was NOT founded to protect President Lincoln from confederate assassins. Lincoln was murdered on April 15, 1865 and the Secret Service was formed on July 5, 1865. Its first charge was to suppress counterfeit currency that was rampant after the Civil War; and its responsibilities broadened to include: “detecting persons perpetrating frauds against the government.” This appropriation resulted in investigations into the Ku Klux Klan, non-conforming distillers, smugglers, mail robbers, land frauds, and a number of other infractions against the federal laws.
It was not until 1894 Secret Service gave part-time protection to President Cleveland. After President McKinley was assassinated in 1901 Congress asked for Presidential protection. In 1902 Secret Service started full-time protection of President Teddy Rossevelt Roosevelt transfer the unit from the Department of Treasury to Justice where it formed the core of the FBI.
