By Mansfield Frazier
The endorsement of Tim McGinty for county prosecutor by a number of Black elected officials is so far beyond the Pale… so out of touch with the overwhelming majority sentiment in the Black community… it’s as outrageous and offends the sensibilities as badly as if the Apostles got their heads together and endorsed Pontius Pilot.
It’s indeed hard to fathom how any supposedly intelligent representatives of the minority community can recommend a candidate whose well-documented ill-treatment of any and all who’ve come before him over the last three decades (be they Black or White) is so clear it’s beyond being a matter of debate. It is common knowledge in the legal community that while he served as an assistant county prosecutor and later as a judge, McGinty has never been on the side of the accused… or the side of fairness. In both of his former positions he operated under the premise that all persons charged with a crime are guilty — so let’s get them through the system as quickly and cheaply as possible. Indeed, he’s running on the platform of “reforming” the criminal justice system… but his brand of “reform” is akin to Mussolini making the trains run on time to prove to the Italian masses that fascism was efficient.
The endorsement of McGinty by Black “leaders” is analogous to a situation that occurred back in 2001. When Jane Campbell stepped down from her position as a county commissioner to run for mayor, popular logic had it that it was time for the Democratic Party to do for county government what the Republicans had done decades earlier: put a person of color in a position of authority. County Commissioner Virgil Brown had been appointed and supported by the GOP for much of the 1980s and ’90s. So, by 2001, it was time for a Black Democrat and the likely candidate was Peter Lawson Jones.
Following the proscribed procedure, the members of the Democratic Central Committee scheduled a meeting where they would vote to make it official for Jones. However, out of nowhere Pat O’Malley (who was the county recorder at the time) stepped up and attempted to corral enough votes to take the seat away from Jones.
Now O’Malley, to his credit, had for years been pretty fair about hiring minorities at the Recorder’s Office… something virtually no other branch of county government could boast. When someone once pointed out that he was most likely politically motivated in his hiring, my response was “So? I doubt if the Black people getting a steady paycheck really care what his motivation is.”
In an attempt to win the vote, O’Malley had a group of his Black employees running around the Eastside wearing these huge buttons with his name on it… and I admit it really, really pissed me off. In the name of fairness O’Malley couldn’t stand aside for a Black man whose time clearly had come, and further, I knew there would not be any Irishmen running around the Westside wearing buttons for Jones.
At the time I was the associate editor of a downtown weekly news magazine named The Tab, and I wrote a scathing piece which I, unfortunately, in my youthful brashness, entitled “Monkeys for O’Malley?”
The article accurately stated that all primates — from gorillas, to orangutans, to baboons, to chimpanzees — are clannish; they look out for other members of their group with fierce loyalty, dedication and determination. I compared that to how Westside Irish would play the name game and stick together for O’Malley. I then pointed out the only exception to clannish behavior among animals with the ability to walk on two legs are monkeys… who just love to play dirty tricks on each other, steal from each other, and generally sell each other out at the drop of a banana.
I then asked if the Blacks that were wearing the O’Malley buttons were exhibiting anthropologically regressive behavior… were they indeed mimicking the negative behaviors of monkeys. To this day I maintain I did not call them monkeys, I simply asked the question “were they acting like monkeys” — a linguistic distinction that was evidently lost on the folks in question.
A couple of the gentlemen (really big dudes, too) who felt I’d disparaged them cornered me in the old Lancers Steakhouse on Carnegie Avenue one afternoon and threatened to kick the cowboy shit out of me… but I bluffed my way out of it. I pointed out that I hadn’t been in a fistfight since 9th grade, wasn’t about to get into one now, and then mumbled half under my breath that I hope they didn’t bring a knife to what was going to be a gun fight. The thought that I might have a shiny pistol in my pocket (which, as a convicted felon I certainly could not have been in possession of) backed them off just enough for me to skedaddle the hell out of there… but to this day I don’t sit with my back to the door in certain establishments.
In retrospect, however, they were right and I was wrong; no matter how pleasantly alliterative the phrase “Monkeys for O’Malley” might have sounded I should not have used it… it clearly was over the top. That’s why you’ll not see me asking the question about the current crop of Black politicians… no way will I ask if these so-called Black “leaders” are acting like Monkeys for McGinty. That would be going too far, and I simply won’t stoop that low.
As one of my favorite writers, E.L. Doctorow once wrote, “Duplicity, of course, is the basis of civilization,” and that fact is what makes us different from other primates… excepting of course the monkey, which often acts all too human. Bananas, anyone?
An Open Letter to the Residents of East Cleveland
Cut it out! Please, this petty foolishness is killing the future of your city and will ultimately cause your young people to flee as soon as they are able to do so.
Of course differences of opinion and political prospective occurs in virtually every community in the world… not just in the United States. So the contentiousness that has been brewing in East Cleveland for as long as anyone can recall is nothing new… but it is becoming very damaging to the long-term welfare of the residents.
Just when the outside world begins paying attention to the suburb and appears willing to make much-needed investments in housing and infrastructure, the political infighting becomes so brutal potential investors will begin rethinking their plans. How can anyone expect any reasonable investor to take a risk on such a toxic environment?
This is not about taking sides and finger pointing… in situations like this there’s usually enough blame to go around. But the question is, are the opposing sides wise enough and big enough to put aside their grievances for the good of East Cleveland?
The situation is analogous to the one President Obama finds himself in: His enemies are so intent on his destruction they would tear down our magnificent Republic simply to make him look bad and eventually fail. Put another way, anyone who persists in their attempts to destroy whom they feel are their political opposition in East Cleveland are no better… and indeed far worse than the enemies of President Obama. Can it be any more clear than that?
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.
One Response to “MANSFIELD: Hold the Bananas”
Richard
The John T Corrigan Cabal is alive and well in Cuyahoga County Prosecutors Office. McGinty is a loyal and faithful part of it. It is and continues to be the enabler of public corruption. There should be a immediate, thorough and systematic cleaning of that whole pit of vipers.