Lykos on Diversity (Revisited)

You know, as I prepared to write this post, it occurred to me that I'm starting to run out of title captions that will accurately convey that the article is about yet another Lykos Administration screw up. I mean, she and the Gang just keep throwing me softballs here.

During her four and a half months in office, Lykos has, in fact, made some good decisions. She's made some iffy decisions. She's made some bad decisions.

And then, on days like yesterday, she makes decisions that honestly leave me wondering whether or not Lykos could beat a cantaloupe in an intelligence test.

Now, as I've pointed out here before, Lykos has never been particularly good at promoting diversity within her Office. With the exception of Hannah Chow, she formed the Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight out of 100% white folks. In addition, she brought over Frances Madden, a Caucasian friend and former Montgomery County prosecutor, who is now progressing up through the ranks of the Office like a Rocket Sled on Rails.

I suppose that's fine if you really could give a flying flip less about whether or not your Office appears to have any interest in diversity.

But yesterday, Lykos made a move that highlighted that sometimes her promotions are not just non-diverse, but are actually rather discriminatory.

In the earlier article I wrote about Lykos on Diversity, I made mention of the fact that of two of the African-American Felony Twos in the Office, the Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight had shipped one of them out of the Trial Bureau entirely. Well, there's a little bit more to that story, and it needs to be told.

The name of that prosecutor is Carvana Cloud. Carvana is an outstanding prosecutor who grew up in Houston and devoted her career to public service. Prior to Lykos taking over the helm of the Office, Carvana was very much on the fast track of promotions. She was liked and respected by her peers and highly praised by her supervisors.

Carvana, much to Lykos' apparent dismay, is also a Democrat. She supported Clarence Bradford in the District Attorney's race. Nothing over the top (like running a blog or something), but she did exercise her Constitutional right to support the candidate of her choice.

And when Lykos took over, she punished Carvana for it.

First, a little background.

Prior to Lykos taking over, the way the Office hierarchy worked was that when a prosecutor was first promoted to the coveted level of Felony Chief, they went to one of three places as their first assignment as Chief. They either a) went to a year long rotation in the Writs Division; b) served as the Intake Chief; or c) served as the Probable Cause Chief. (NOTE: For a general description of the difference between Intake Chief and Probable Cause Chief, see here and here.)

The Writs gig was actually pretty good if a new chief could get it, but I always referred to P.C. Chief and Intake Chief as the "sh*t spots". The job description is not much fun (especially if you have to do it for 9 months, like I did!).

However, if you are a new chief, you don't really mind going to one of those two spots, because by making Chief, you get a significant raise, your parking paid for, and you are eligible to make the big bucks at intake as Chief.

When Lykos took over, she kept both the Writs spot and the Intake spot as Chief Positions (with all the perks). However, the day she set foot in the Office, she decided to downgrade the Probable Cause spot so that it was no longer a Chief slot. The position got a demotion.

And guess who Lykos decided to send there. You guessed it - Carvana.

So basically, Carvana got moved out of the Trial Bureau (where she was thriving) and put in the aforemention "sh*t spot", but to add insult to injury, Lykos took away all the perks. No raise. No free parking. No intake eligibility. And she certainly didn't promote Carvana. It was a blatant and retaliatory move.

Fast forward to yesterday. Carvana is having a baby soon, and is out of the Office for that. So, the Administration decided they needed to get a full time replacement for the P.C. court. If Lykos was going to keep up consistency with her ideas about a Felony Two serving in P.C. Court, it would stand to reason that the Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight would just laterally move a Felony Two into Carvana's position, right?

Wrong.

Lykos made a Chief promotion for the spot.

Yesterday, Craig Feazel was promoted to District Court Chief and was assigned to Probable Cause court to replace Carvana. Don't get me wrong, Craig is an extremely talented prosecutor and will make a great chief. I've got no arguments with his promotion at all. But it is relevant that he is also Caucasian.

If this all sounds a bit convoluted, here's the bottom line:

The position of Probable Cause Chief has historically ALWAYS been a Chief position with all the benefits that go with being a Chief. Under the Lykos Administration, for four and a half months, that position was downgraded to a Felony Two position solely for the purpose of placing Carvana Cloud there (with no perks). The second that Carvana left the position, Lykos changed it right back to a Chief Position with all the perks.

So the question I have for Lykos and the Gang is simple:

Are you retaliating for political reasons (as you've sworn before you don't do), or are you racist, or just both?