Mothers’ Tears
A spate of police shootings in recent days has resulted in mothers appearing on TV news programs crying and questioning why officers had to shoot their sons; and they ask the questions even though in each case their sons were armed, engaging in criminal activity, and obviously were dangerous.
These mothers simply have to understand that police officers have a right to go home safe to their families at the end of their shifts, and unnecessarily putting their lives on the line is something no one can — or should — expect them to do.
When young men leave home armed, they should always be prepared for violent outcomes … and their mothers should understand that also. “Shooting to wound” only happens in the movies, in real life when cops draw their weapons they’re trained to shoot to kill, and that’s not about to change.
Correction
“I’m never wrong. I thought I was wrong once, turns out I was mistaken.”
–Attributed to Groucho Marx (among others)
Last week I wrote that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) was supposed to initiate an investigation of the Cleveland Department of Police (CPD) back in 2000, but that it never occurred. I was wrong — the investigation, in fact, did occur and it resulted in a set of recommendations being made to improve the Department and an agreement was entered into by both parties to accomplish those improvements.
However, the attorney that advised me of the foregoing occurrence cited two other facts: One, that while the media noted the initial interest of the DOJ in the shortcomings of Cleveland’s police department back in 2000, no mention was ever made by the media in regards to the outcome of the investigation or the agreement two years later. There’s a strong suspicion that, by that time, the DOJ had come under control of Bush II appointees and all civil rights endeavors across the country were scaled back considerably. It appears as if the agreement was not enforced or monitored.
And an agreement is only as good as the enforcement of it. Nothing really changed all that much on the streets in Cleveland where the action takes place, but some really nice sounding policies were put on paper. Maybe if Edward Henderson had had a copy of those policies in his possession when he was arrested by Cleveland police officers on January 1 he could have waved them at the officers… thus guaranteeing that he would not have been brutalized. Sure, right.
The fact policies on paper are not being followed in the field could be why the DOJ has pushed local police and prosecutors out of the way on the Henderson case. Sure, I hear the mouthpieces for the accused officers and the County Prosecutor’s Office loudly proclaiming how much they welcome the Feds, but that’s a heaping load of horse manure. Trust this: No one, and I do mean no one, ever wants the Feds taking over a case. Such a move is tantamount to a vote of no confidence in the local’s ability to do a thorough, honest and transparent investigation and prosecution.
And why might the Feds suspect something could be out of kilter police-wise in Cleveland? Well, a good place to begin looking would be at a dead body by the side of the road. When the two Cleveland officers mistook the woman’s body for a deer, the brass at the CPD rightly suspended them for dereliction of duty.
But what did the police union president Steve Loomis do? He literally bitch-slapped the whole city by putting on a fundraiser for the two officers, sending a loud and clear message that no Cleveland patrolman need worry about being suspended (so, in effect, they need not worry about doing their jobs in the right manner, either) because Big Daddy Loomis will make sure they don’t lose any money. In fact, the fundraiser might have put more money into the policemen’s wallets than if they had been on the job working. Hell, they’d hit on a way to make dereliction to duty pay.
The same police brass that suspended the officers should have publicly been all up in Loomis’ face over that stunt, letting him know in no uncertain terms who runs the CPD. When they failed to say one word publicly, it became crystal clear who runs the CPD. And it damn sure ain’t the police brass or City Council; it’s being run out of the Zone Car. But the schoolyard bully/union president just might have gone too far… bullies always do.
Loomis took the joke way past Broadway with that fundraising stunt and the Feds just might have been laying back, waiting in the weeds for an opportunity to correct the course of the dysfunctional CPD. This loud-mouthed, overbearing chowderhead has met his match with the Feds… I’m willing to make book on it. Now the only thing that needs to happen is for some people over at City Hall and the Justice Center (other than Councilman Jeff Johnson) to strap their nuts on and follow suit.
Throwing a Rock and Hiding Your Hand
A recent headline on a Phillip Morris PD column blasted ill-raised youngsters in the Central neighborhoods, characterizing them as “packs of dogs” because of a string of armed robberies carried out by these juveniles. Now, in all honesty, I myself have also characterized such troubled youth in similarly negative terms, saying on more than one occasion they might as well have been raised by wolves. These teens’ behavior often defies all human logic and reason.
But Morris and I differ radically in a couple of respects: One, he never, ever will bring himself to find fault with the centuries of untrammeled institutionalized racism and bigotry in America that is in large part to blame for the bands of depraved children roaming inner-city neighborhoods throughout the land today. Morris oftentimes slyly attempts to suggest there’s something genetically wrong with some black folks of the underclass that make them act out the way they do. To that I’ll always say “bullshit.”
I say “bullshit” because Morris likes to conveniently forget that the problematical conditions and circumstances underclass Blacks find themselves in were created not by their own doing, but by the aforementioned brutalities they are heir to. Something was done to our race during slavery and the Jim Crow era which followed (indeed, much of it continues today) and some Black families are yet to recover from it… even three and four generations after the fact.
Morris and his ilk just love to posit that if the lazy parents of these hoodlums would just buck up and do their jobs — read to their kids, get them ready for school on time, find summer employment for them, and teach them to wash behind their ears — everything in ‘hoods all across the country would be hunky-dory. What he’s failing to mention is that he’s asking them to do something they were never taught to do by their own parents. What if they don’t know how to read? Conservatives simply love to suggest that poor Black folks and other disadvantaged people actually like the diminished conditions of their existences.
Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “It’s alright to tell a man to lift himself by his bootstraps. But it’s a cruel jest to say that to a man with no boots.” More and more of the poor in America are going bootless… and it’s due to the already frayed social safety net conservatives are attempting to completely remove from under struggling families.
Some say that I simply like beating up on White folks for what happened long ago, but that’s not true. What I am attempting to do is prick the conscience of those in control of resources to remind them of their obligation to undue what their forbearers did (and profited from). I simply want them to fund programs like the Harlem Children’s Zone that has proven to actually solve the problems of the underclass.
Morris, on the other hand, by giving them a pass on the effects of institutionalized White racism on the Black race, makes those in power feel they don’t owe anyone a damn thing… since, as Morris likes to suggest, “Their substandard condition is their own fault.” It really isn’t.
Two, Morris, utilizing the voice of Stanley Jackson (a barbershop owner on Central Avenue) offers up even more bullshit as the means of solving the problems of the underclass: He writes, “‘But how do you rebuild families? How do you rebuild people who have no idea how to start to rebuild their own lives?’ As I walked to the door, Stanley attempted to answer his own difficult question. ‘I guess it’ll start with having some men willing to stand up to these boys who are running wild. I guess that would be a good start,’ he said.”
Great. Since the “packs of dogs” are armed, wouldn’t the men who stand up to them have to be equally armed? So, the answer is to turn the Central neighborhood into a latter-day Dodge Cities, where bands of adult vigilantes roam the streets putting out-of-control juveniles in check… is this really what Morris is proposing as a solution?
Do out-of-control, armed juveniles need to be put in check? Of course, any fool knows that. But that’s what police are supposedly for. But as long as mainly White officers cruise through Black neighborhoods like armies of occupation, the outcome too often is brutality under the guise of “making the streets safe.” When will Morris write about that? More Black men in blue uniforms would go a long way in solving the problem, but in cities like Cleveland, don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen.
Since Morris was clever enough to put the words “packs of dogs” into the mouth of a neighborhood barber (that’s the “throwing a rock and hiding your hand” part) I guess I won’t do as numerous people have suggested I do and once again call him an Uncle Tom. After all, he didn’t say it… someone else did, so Morris gets a pass on this one, but just barely. Hey Philip, see how easy it is to say something by slipping the words “Uncle Tom” into the article… while appearing not to be calling you one? I can be clever with words too, ‘ya know.
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://www.neighborhoodsolutionsinc.com.