By Mansfield Frazier
First things first: As the punishments for the first 11 officers involved in the 137 shot debacle in which two unarmed individuals died was meted out, cries from dunderheads grew louder that the dead suspects brought the punishment of death on themselves by fleeing from officers. The trope goes: “If the suspects would only have pulled over, nothing would have happened to them.”
Try telling that to Edward Henderson, who, after a police chase on New Year’s Day 2011, exited his vehicle and laid face down on the ground, arms extended straight out in clear view, only to have his head used as a football by then-Cleveland Police Officer Marin Lentz. The grizzly deed was captured on camera by a police helicopter, yet those who blindly support police, no matter how egregious their behavior, will contend that Lentz only slipped … in spite of the fact he took a running start like a field goal kicker.
Perhaps the reason Timothy Russell didn’t pull over that fateful night was because he wanted to live for another 25 minutes.
Rogue officers know, that, like Mark Furman of OJ infamy, if and when they are caught and fired for despicable acts they can always move to someplace like Hayden Lake, Idaho, a city where there are more rabid racists per block than there were Nazis in Berlin under Hitler … and they will be feted as a hero by the other not-so-closeted Klan members.
Know this: Wealthy right-wingers around the country let racist police officers know that whatever they do — no matter how inhumanely they act — they will be protected and made financially whole … as long as they are protecting white dominance and privilege. This is the dastardly compact that’s been in place in America since the days of slavery and this blind support of wrongdoing officers is the real root of the problem, making change so difficult … but not impossible.
This type of bigotry is, in part, the reason for the gathering of close to 200 individuals at historic Olivet Institutional Baptist Church last Tuesday night. People came to inform attorneys and investigators from the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice of incidents of wrongdoing by Cleveland police officers, and the meeting went off pretty much as I expected: Mostly folks telling overwrought tales of brutal confrontations with Cleveland cops, sprinkled in with some valuable comments — if the feds know how to interpret them.
One dude, whom I’ve known — thankfully from a distance — for over 30 years, showed up decked out in a 1970s era mack-daddy getup that almost prompted me to ask him “how many polyesters did you have to skin to make that clown suit?”
Evidently a member of the congregation at Olivet, he went on and on in regards to all of the hundreds of thousands of dollars he’s spent over the years attempting to help “his people.” Maybe that’s why today he’s as broke as the Ten Commandments.
I could only imagine the excruciating pain of embarrassment the church’s exceptionally bright pastor, Rev. Jawanza Colvin, must have been going though as he, like the rest of us, had to sit though this bit of shameful self-aggrandizement. His skills as a moderator would be sorely tested again and again during the evening as he attempted to keep folks’ comments on point and delivered within the allotted two-minute time frame. But I’m sure the good Reverend’s forbearance was due in part to a fact many of us in the black community are acutely aware of: Untrammeled racism experienced on a day-in-and-day-out, year-in-and-year-out basis is oppressive in the extreme and can drive some people over the brink … making them as mad as hatters.
It can also make some very suspicious. More than one person I spoke with questioned why the first sanctions against police officers involved in the 137 shots were released on the same day as the meeting. Was it simply a coincidence, or was something more sinister at play?
Nonetheless, much of this skepticism will fade away if the belief is that real change is on the horizon. The hope is that, similar to outcomes of investigations in cities like Los Angeles, Seattle, New Orleans and Portland, OR, a consent decree will be entered into with the City of Cleveland and the police culture here will be permanently altered for the better.
In Los Angeles, the consent decree, which lasted 12 years, was finally lifted in May of this year. It was widely hailed by residents, civil rights organizations and media as an overwhelming success.
The day may soon be at hand where the few rogue officers on Cleveland’s police force — those who routinely feel as if they are entitled to do wrong simply because they have gotten away with it for so long — are exposed, retrained or fired. The feds have demonstrated in past cases they’re not about to back down in the face of opposition from out-of-control officers, or back up from doing battle with overly powerful police unions that, for decades, have protected … nay, even encouraged … wrongdoing. The jig really is, at long-last, finally up.
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://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com.
One Response to “MANSFIELD: The Jig is Finally Up”
Dick Peery
Hope springs eternal. Good statement of the problem, but will it mean anything if the police involved in the 137 shot slayings of Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell are not convicted of murder? If any consent decree is not accompanied by an organized community demanding action, can recommendations make a difference? While the unions may seem overly powerful, the brutality they protect existed long before they did. Without political mobilization, the power relationships will stay the same.