by Steve Martinez

I read with great interest the series of letters (and The Shield article) between President Hanson and "Community Leader" Ben Salazar. In his letter to President Hanson, Mr. Salazar states that he "was not impugning the character or integrity of any of my fellow Latinos who may be police officers, as Mr.Hanson claimed." I appreciate Mr. Salazar’s lofty status in the South Omaha Community (snicker snicker) and while I can only hope to one day have such a loyal following as Mr.Salazar, I think I am qualified to respond to his comments.

When Mr. Salazar uses the term "token hire" to describe any Omaha police officer it is a term and a comment directed at that officer, not the Omaha Police Department’s hiring practices. The term "token hire" indicates that the subject of the comment would not have been hired were it not for the fact that they were a member of some sort of protected class (race, sex, or whatever). It implies that those "token hires" aren’t worthy of the job they hold and they lose credibility in the eyes of their peers.

It was several years ago that a person whom I consider a great officer and a close personal friend was called a token hire during a block of instruction by another so-called "community leader" who was brought in to speak to the recruits. Right there in front of his whole class this officer was called a "token hire". I asked him how he felt about that and he told me it really pissed him off. It’s a real accomplishment to test high enough and interview good enough to be hired by the Omaha Police Department and when someone belittles that accomplishment we should all feel offended.

But this wasn’t the first time Mr.Salazar has unleashed his forked tongue in this manner on minority hires of the OPD. In 1994 after I graduated from the police academy, Mr.Salazar wrote a piece (it was a real piece all right) in his little newsletter that took direct shots at my family. To paraphrase – and I have no choice but to do so as I didn’t keep the article from way back then – Mr. Salazar wrote that if you were Mexican and lived in Omaha you couldn’t get hired by the police department unless your name was Martinez or Gonzalez (an assertion that certainly didn’t sit well with other officers of Mexican descent). We were, in his eyes, "token hires". A sub-class if you will, that enjoyed an unfair advantage in the hiring process presumably because of our family name.

Well, Mr.Salazar, let’s take a look at those token Martinez and Gonzalez officers. Among our ranks are: one Captain (a first among Latino officers with OPD), two Lieutenants (who head up important specialty units in the department), two Sergeants (who were both promoted without the benefit of any affirmative action assistance), one retired Sergeant, and one officer (who would undoubtedly be promoted had he ever decided to test for promotion and who has spent time in the Criminal Investigative Bureau – including a long stint in the Child Victim Unit). Not too bad for a bunch of "token hires" if I do say so myself.

While I respect Mr.Salazar’s right to his opinion, I don’t think there is anything else to respect at all. It’s the same old broken record over and over. I’m disappointed that no real leaders have stepped up and taken the responsibility of trying to make a positive influence in the Latino community instead of the divide and conquer approach employed by Mr. Salazar. I’m equally disappointed in two fellow Latino Peace Officer’s Association (LPOA) members if it is indeed true that they found it appropriate to align themselves in this debate with the likes of Benito. 

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