Feb 11, 2022

Hasshan Batts Not A Bashful Man


Hasshan Batts was on my radar a few years ago, when a video emerged with him angry about a parking ticket. He was ranting about racial discrimination. I can assure him that the Parking Authority also victimizes white, yellow and brown people

He also made this blog page previously when Cynthia Mota repeatedly nominated him to be appointed Pawlowski's replacement mayor. Cynthia forgot to mention that she was at the time in his employ at Promise Neighborhoods. Although I broke the story here, the Morning Call gave no attribution when they reported the same story several days later, but that's another complaint, for another day.

I'm back on Hasshan's case today because of his current editorial in the Morning Call. It concerns Black History Month and he's certainly a qualified representative. My issue is his conclusion...to support Black leadership, local Black businesses and Black-led nonprofit organizations... I personally don't think that support should be automatic because a person or group is black, but because they're  competent individuals. But the glare is Black-led nonprofit. Just like Mota forgot to mention that she worked for Batts, Batts might mention that he leads a Black non-profit.

photo of Hasshan Batts and Alan Jennings

ADDENDUM: Police Chief Charles Roca had officers join Batts' candle vigil at the scene of the latest shooting. While Roca wants to show police empathy to community pain, he may be inadvertently Defunding his own department.

3 comments:

  1. Hasshan Batts is a twice convicted felon for drugs. As such he should not be eligible to be in a leadership position of any non-profit.

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  2. pathfinder, his past is both known and controversial. I suppose it might actually give him more street creditably for that group. I object to the Defund movement... our police departments need to be enlarged, not have funding diverted.

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  3. "Cynthia forgot to mention that she was at the time in his employ at Promise Neighborhoods."


    You are correct that Mota forgot to mention this, as you and others have previously pointed out. But Batts shouldn't get a pass for this either.

    He interviewed with council for the position of Mayor, and also "forgot" to mention that as Mayor he would (likely) still be the PRIVATE employer of one of seven sitting members of council. That's hardly a small issue and one that would have greatly impacted his (and council's) ability to govern. It was also an indication of the type of attitude he had towards personal and government ethics responsibilities.

    That the Morning Call continues to feature Batts as a responsible commentator on city issues speaks volumes about the ethics at the Morning Call. Apparently Pawlowski's shortcomings in the ethics department aren't the only one that the Call ignored (and continues to ignore in the case of Batts).

    ReplyDelete

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