The "Ethical" Lynching of an Uppity Black Man

I guess the good white folks in Huntsville, Alabama are tired of District One City Councilman Richard Showers "uppity" ways, so they decided to put him in his place by filing a complaint with the Alabama Ethics (RedEye roll) Commission, because he robbed, raped and murdered the voters in his district, I mean, he put $40.00 of gasoline into his daughters automobile in the aftermath of the deadly tornadoes.

City Attorney Peter Joffrion reported the April 28 incident to the Alabama Ethics Commission on Friday. The Times obtained a copy of the two-page letter through an open records request.
According to the letter, Showers and his daughter drove in separate vehicles to a generator-powered city fueling station on Governors Drive -- one of the few places in town that had gas in the immediate aftermath of the storm. Two Huntsville police officers were posted there to ensure that only city employees providing "essential public services" got fuel.
The letter says Showers called City Administrator Rex Reynolds after being told he could not refuel both vehicles. Reynolds told Showers he could pump 10 gallons into his daughter's vehicle if he planned to use that car for city business.
"Showers replied that his daughter had followed him to the station and that he was not using her car for work," the letter states. "Again, Rex Reynolds informed Showers that he could not receive gas for his daughter's car."
Huntsville police Sgt. Mark Shahan, who was in line behind Showers, told the councilman he could pump 10 gallons into his personal vehicle.
After Shahan drove off, the letter says, Showers directed the 10 gallons to be pumped into his daughter's car.
Showers later repaid the city for the cost of the fuel -- about $40 -- and has "apologized profusely for compromising the affected city employees and his position," according to the letter.

Seriously? Forty dollars of gasoline in a council members daughters car in the aftermath of deadly tornado warrants the filing of an ethics report? Let's go "inside the story" and find out.

Let’s be clear here: What Councilman Showers did is far worse than merely taking advantage of his position for selfish gain. He took advantage of his position during a declared state of emergency. His conduct was arrogant, selfish, and criminal. Furthermore, his daughter is a public school teacher and should have known better than to go along with this. But one has to wonder if she is not accustomed to getting special treatment due to her father’s position.
Want some irony? In Thursday night’s city council meeting, the city was poised to award a contract for wrecker services to a local company. Showers objected, accused the company owner of unethical conduct, and tried to get the council to award the contract to a company in his district that had submitted a higher bid.

Isn't it "ironic" that after Showers objected to the awarding of a contract at and accused the company owner of unethical conduct on Thursday, an ethics violation report is filed against him on Friday? Mind you we don't know the specifics of the accusations or unethical conduct, but the mere fact a black man had the audacity to accuse someone of unethical conduct is grounds for them being taken down a peg. Who owns the Wrecker Service? Who will benefit economically from the contract? Is it a local company? So many questions, so few answers.

Since reconstruction, there has always an issue of minorities getting their fair share of state, federal and local contract dollars. The federal government has attempted to rectify this by establishing minority small business development programs, in addition to legislation, to mitigate this reality. The fact is, those who make spending decisions most often are not minorities, and consequently their choice of who gets a piece of the pie consistently excludes minority businesses.

Is this a high-tech lynching of an uppity black man? I say yes because we only have one side of the story since ironically Showers was not immediately available for comment. Where is all that post-storm coming goodwill? Of all the things to file an ethics complaint about, this ain't it.

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Huntsville city officials self-reported an incident involving fraudulent dispensing of gasoline to the state ethics board Wednesday, officials said.In a statement released by city officials, an internal review was done following the power outage from the tornadoes two weeks ago. The review found that during the outage, less than 10 gallons of city gasoline was dispensed improperly.The release said the value of the gasoline has since been repaid to the city, but officials reported it to the Alabama Ethics Commission. Because it's an on-going investigation, city officials declined to release additional details.

I report. You decide.