How about some minority's, oh my mistake the kkk aren't minority friendly.
Photos: Elected officials take oath of office at county courthouse
Submitted by Howard Owens on December 30, 2011 - 9:21am
Elected officials countywide -- some returning to office, some entering office for the first time -- gathered in Genesee County Courthouse on Thursday night for a swearing-in ceremony hosted by the County Clerk's Office.
The ceremony met the state's oath of office requirements and the oaths were administered by county court Judge Robert C. Noonan and State Assemblyman Steve Hawley.
Hawley performed an honorary swearing in of his son Brooks Hawley (bottom picture), who has been selected by the city GOP committee to fill one of the two vacancies left by the election of Marianne Clattenburg and Frank Ferrando to the County Legislature (Ferrando is pictured above and in first picture below). Brooks Hawley can't be sworn in officially until the Batavia City Council approves his appointment.
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We'll post a link later today to purchase prints of these pictures.
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December 31, 2011 - 2:40pm
#3
December 31, 2011 - 3:36pm
#4
Jason,
You sound like an old record and it gets a bit tiring.
How about some minority candidates?
I'm all for it.
You won't see them unless they come forward and put their hat in the ring.
They will not just magically appear in those pictures without putting in the work.
Are you ready hold office? If so, why not talk to the committee chair for your party. Let them know you want to get involved and that you are ready to work your butt off to make it happen.
This has nothing to do with "KKK minority friendly", and you know it.
It has to do with people, regardless of race or creed, stepping up and saying, "I want a chance.".
December 31, 2011 - 3:58pm
#5
What office did you run for, Jason? I don't remember seeing your name on a ballot.
December 31, 2011 - 4:05pm
#6
I remember when Billy Blackshere ran for Legislature in the city, he really had a good showing. Especially for the little money we had at the time. Obama also carried the city. Jason I think Batavia is very open to Black candidates.
December 31, 2011 - 4:17pm
#7
Charlie,
You notice that Jason has never tired to run? He just whines and whimpers. Step up to the plate Jason.
December 31, 2011 - 4:52pm
#8
Wasn't there an African-American Sheriff in Genesee County late 70's early 80's? Or was he a candidate but did not win.
December 31, 2011 - 5:04pm
#9
Dave,
He was a candidate and did not win.
And of course Jason does not seem to remember, or does not want to, Willy Brooks, who was a long time member of the County Legislature.
December 31, 2011 - 5:12pm
#10
Oh yeah, I forgot about Willie myself, good man. What was the Sheriff's candidate name, it's driving me crazy ( well, crazier anyways)
December 31, 2011 - 5:19pm
#11
Ray Walker
December 31, 2011 - 5:40pm
#12
Wow, I am getting old, John I know him and totally forgot that he ran for sheriff. He is, of course now the pastor at First baptist church. Also a very good guy, loves bad jokes
December 31, 2011 - 5:50pm
#13
Here we go with the race card being played again. Seems to me the KKK was a mostly southern organization, hated yankees as much as blacks...especially us northerners that believe in equal rights.
December 31, 2011 - 6:03pm
#14
Jason is always crying that same old tune, but then never does anything.
December 31, 2011 - 6:30pm
#15
...Not to be construed with the immediate discussion of alleged racism in Genesee County/Batavia politics- nor anyone living or dead who might take umbrage at the suggestion the Klan may have existed in our local environs. Merely a discussion of the Historical context of the Ku Klux Klan... Largely thought of as a 'southern' phenomenon, the Klan became pervasive in U. S., manifesting in three waves: Civil war era from the founding in 1860, largely manifest in the south. The second wave emerged in the 1920s and spread throughout the nation with (initial) impunity, garnering significant political influence. The third wave followed WW II, and was largely resistive and reactive to the fledgeling civil rights movement.
Ray Cianfrini has done significant research on the Klan History in our area: http://konicki.com/blog2/2009/03/14/anti-immigrant-feelings-run-deep-the...
December 31, 2011 - 6:42pm
#16
...Following the Attica Prison incident in 1971, it was revealed that (mostly downstate) a significant number of prison guards were members of the KKK. I don't have any sources on this; I am relying on memory of a press release I received while a journalism student (1972 - 1976). I did find (via Google) this notice from 1978: "1977-78, Napanoch, NY: A KKK klavern is exposed.among prison guards and inmates at a NY state prison. Earl Schoonmaker, a civilian instructor at the prison, and guard Glen Wilkinson incorporated the Independent Northern Klans in the (SIC) sate. Guard brutality leads to a rebellion by the prisoners." That report is later than the press release I mentioned. I don't believe allegations against any guards from WNY were cited in the press release.
December 31, 2011 - 7:10pm
#17
There is little doubt racism still exists but, it is mostly limited to very old people. Its just not tolerated with this generation and definatly not the next.
I'm pretty sure a black, right of center, Republican candidate would win in Genesee County without much trouble. A Democrat is another story, they would have not much of a chance at all. Race matters little.
Now if Jesus himself endorsed the Democrat, that would increase the chances. Of course the candidate would still lose but, they could get up to 40% of the vote. 
December 31, 2011 - 7:23pm
#18
Charlie,
Your a bit wrong on racism among the younger people. It's there. But there is less of it and it is not a strong.
But Jason's claims are without merit and he has never been able to back them up.
December 31, 2011 - 8:05pm
#19
Racism is also a by-product of staying sheltered inside your known world. I'll confess to a bit of it when I was young, but that was due to ignorance. I didn't really know very many people who weren't just like me growing up. Once I got out into the world, work in Erie County, then College, and then the Navy, I began to make friends with people who were from diverse ethnic groups, I discovered that there are good and bad people everywhere and in every group, even White Northern European Protestants. Imagine my shock! Then when I traveled around the world and engaged in working with folks from other countries, I found some good, some bad, even the French, again imagine my surprise! I guess my point is that as society becomes a bit more global and Batavia becomes a bit more diverse attitudes will change. Those who choose to stay within their "known" closed off world will usually be the most racist and usually the most ignorant. That is pretty difficult to do these days. There will never be a time where some don't like others for whatever reason.
December 31, 2011 - 11:48pm
#20
Racism (prejudice) exists. It is deferred (or assumed to be) within pretext or subtext intuitively supporting generalities about "they." "They" being a group defined by and usually demographically different from the "I" describing "they." ...And any number of persons comprising "they" are not personally known to "I," nor does "I" cite statistical evidence to support generalizations attributed to "they."
January 1, 2012 - 9:24am
#21
Here's our story on the Klan in Genesee County and Ray Cianfrini's expertise on the issue.
http://thebatavian.com/blogs/howard-owens/time-1920s-klan-popular-genese...
The Klan here was mostly anti-Cathloic and anti-Italian.
A story about race relations: When I was in Memphis a decade or so ago, I stopped to have my shoes shined in the hotel we were staying at and the old guy and I struck up a real conversation. He had lived in San Diego at one time. I mentioned my observation that the black people in the south treated Billie and I really well. They were warm and friendly, but that usually wasn't the case in San Diego. He said something like, 'That's because down here, we know who the racist are. They don't hide it. In San Diego, you don't know who they are, so you don't trust any whites."
In other words, the racism in the South, what is left of it, is open and obvious. In a place like San Diego, it isn't acceptable to be a racist, so white racist are more covert about it, making it more insidious.
I imagine some of that goes on in a place like Batavia, too. Most of us would never tolerate racism, and there's probably degrees of subtle racism that some African Americans perceive that the rest of us don't and would be shocked to know it existed.
That said, Batavia is far less racist than any place I lived in California.
When I ran the news site in Ventura, we constantly had to battle against racism. Any crime committed would be blamed on "wetbacks" and lead to vile and disgusting comments that we would delete as quickly as they appeared (Ventura was one of the very first newspapers in the country to allow comments on news stories, and we were the first to institute a verifiable ID process, primarily to deal with the racists).
I've never had to deal with that on The Batavian. And it's not just our real name policy that knocks down the racist comments. In Ventura, and I've seen this with other news sites around the country, the most vile racists usually aren't shy about making their identities known. The conversations on The Batavian have been by and large civil and acceptable regarding race.
A story like the woman hitting the Walmart employee in Ventura, I can only imagine the amount of racism we would have had to deal with on comments there, or in Bakersfield, where I also ran the newspaper site for a time. Here, on The Batavian, there were a couple of comments a couple of people took issue with, but they were pretty borderline issues.
However, regarding age and racism, the only time I've seen a really vile racist comment on one of our stories happened on Facebook. A younger person using his real name left a comment last week on one of our stories on Facebook. I have a zero tolerance policy for racism, so I deleted the comment and reported it as abuse to Facebook. It wasn't some old white guy who left that comment.
January 1, 2012 - 10:58am
#22
If you ever read The Buffalo News online, as I'm sure you do Howard, you have noticed that since they went to using real names for comments the nasty and racist stuff has come mostly to a close. It used to be rampant and vile.
Howard how about posting the names who are in pics.......