Unintended consequences

BY TONY BOUZA

Unintended consequences: a harsh law of public life that visits well-intentioned officials out to fix serious problems.

Unlike the simple answers of demagogues out to gather cash, power or sex—and we have a plethora of those—those acting in good faith rarely expect the negative results that pop up in unexpected places.

These heroes see a problem—homelessness, addiction, crime, poverty, disease, unemployment, whatever—and apply a solution. Education would be a beacon to the benighted. Policing would be the answer to crime.

Reformers, early in the 20th Century, believed teachers’ intellectual
integrity needed to be protected. Ah, the appeal—but the thorns are
concealed. Tenure would prove a mantle of protection. And cops would also be enrolled in the ranks of those protected by law to act independently of ward heelers. Civil Service reforms would provide the necessary protections to enable honest service.

It was also a time of rising unionism as exploited workers banded together
to preserve their dignity.

Hard to imagine better faith or nobler aspirations. In the fullness of time these useful and progressive steps—unionism and civil service—produced grotesque outcomes fashioned by crafty humans. Minnesota, priding itself on its commitment to education, was shocked by the Federal Government’s rebuff of its application for grants based on evidence of its commitment to pedagogic excellence. And the root cause? An apparent unwillingness to face the harsh choice of identifying and firing the tiny minority of demonstrably incompetent teachers.

And a parade of judgments and settlements served as mute proof of the cost of having out of control cops all over the state. It is as risky as it ever was to fail the attitude test. My experience as an expert in studying police abuse leads me to the conclusion that cops often rely on a sense of impunity when encountering truculence.
Over the years teachers’ and cops’ unions have gathered such enormous political power that they’ve made it virtually impossible to fire the 1 or 2 percent of malefactors in the ranks. And these thumpers in the police ranks, although, for certain, a fraction of the forces, set the tone and define the limits of action that guide their tolerant overseers, most of whom are members of the same union.

Thus a perversion of labor’s lofty aims of dignity, independence and integrity become corrupted to tawdry—and successful—efforts to preserve wrongdoers in the ranks. Subjected to the same limitations, the business sector would collapse.

We are not talking here of due process, accountability or dismissals for cause, but, rather, of reforms that were adopted for the noblest purposes but which under the political machinations of powerful lobbies, got twisted into strait jackets that produced the opposite of the objectives sought. And the teachers’ unions will fight for smaller classes, teacher training, more money and better facilities while casting their mantle over feckless, incompetent or non-performing members.

The police unions will fight like tigers to protect thumpers who have been the cause of lawsuits and grievances.

Civil Service reforms, unionism and educational initiatives produced the unintended consequences that resulted in the abandonment of accountability.

And citizens awaken to headlines that corrupt cops have been returned to the ranks, that they must ante up for repeated and substantial judgments and that the state has suffered the insult of a federal rebuff as it sought millions for education.
Be careful what you wish for . . .