Lady Justice in the Eye of the Storm

by Robert Thornhill

Oh Lord, why don’t we?

  These lyrics were written over thirty years ago, and yet we’re still asking the same question.

  The ‘perfect harmony’ assumes that all of the keys, both black and white, are in tune. That was certainly not the case in Kansas City or Missouri or anywhere in the U.S. for that matter. Things were out of whack and needed a good tuning.

  On the day of the forum, I was as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs, as my grandma used to say. Ox was right there with me, but Willie was cool, calm and seemingly unfazed by it all.

  I had been worried about Andrea Clemmons, the moderator. She was a middle-aged black woman and I hoped that she wouldn’t have an axe to grind. Our first meeting put my mind at ease. You can almost always tell when someone, either black or white, has a chip on their shoulder. Andrea didn’t. She was very professional, all business, and most important, she had a grasp of the issues we would be discussing.

  Before the show was to air, we met to discuss the ground rules. She was firm but fair. No topic was off limits as long as it was related to the discussion. There were to be no personal attacks or name-calling. She reminded everyone that the purpose of the exchange was to air grievances and look for solutions.

  The show opened with a brief introduction outlining the sequence of events which had brought the crisis in our city to a head. Newsreel footage showed demonstrators milling about both sites, carrying their placards and shouting their slogans, ending with footage of police breaking up fights between the two factions.

  “I think the best way to get a handle on this,” Andrea began, “is to start with the first incident, the shooting of Tyrell Jackson. The officer involved in that incident is George Wilson, a twenty-five year veteran of the department with a half-dozen letters of commendation in his file and no complaints of racial profiling or use of excessive force.”

  I was really glad to hear that introduction. Andrea had done her homework and was striving to present Ox in the best light possible.

  She continued. “Officer Wilson, I know this is difficult, but I am sure our audience would like to hear your thoughts on what happened that day.”

  “Yes, Ma’am. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve played that day over in my mind. All I can come up with is that all of us were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Two black men, one large and one smaller had held up a convenience store. My partner and I were just a few blocks from the store when we spotted Tyrell Jackson and Cleavon Fowler. They were an exact match to the description of the perps that had hit the convenience store. The sad thing is if that robbery hadn’t taken place, we would never have stopped Jackson and Fowler, but it did. The truth, Ms. Clemmons, is if the description of the perps had been two white guys and we saw two white guys matching the description walking down the street, we would have done the same thing. We were just doing our jobs.

  “The other sad thing is we had no way of knowing that stopping Jackson would be the straw that broke the camel’s back. I totally understand his feeling of being picked on by the police, but we had no way of knowing that. When he responded with an attack on my partner, he left me no choice --- I’m sure everyone has seen the video. If I hadn’t fired, my partner might have died. Like I said, I’ve gone over this a thousand times, and I just can’t see how we could have done anything differently.”

  “Thank you for your candor, Officer Wilson. The video you mentioned certainly verifies your account of the event, but what I’d like to explore now, is what you referred to as ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back.’ According to the testimony of Cleavon Fowler and information gleaned from talking to Tyrell’s mother, Jackson had a long and eventful history with the police department. Given his arrest record, no doubt some of the attention was deserved, but one of the questions raised was how much of that attention was not deserved and was actually the product of his size and color, in other words, racial profiling.

  “I don’t believe anyone would argue that racial profiling exists. The question is, how pervasive is it? How does it impact people’s lives and what can we do about it?”

  “To put this into perspective, I’d like to call on Darin Farmer. He’s a twenty-year old black student at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He is a business major carrying a ‘B’ average. Mr. Farmer, what has been your experience with the police department?”

  “The first thing I remember was riding with my father. I was probably five or six years old. We were pulled over by a policeman and my dad was pulled out of the car and frisked. It scared me to death. My father was an honest man. He was the manager of a neighborhood grocery store and never had a police record, but I know of at least a half-dozen times when he was pulled over and questioned.

  “My first such experience was last year. I was doing some work outside of class for one of my professors. He lived in a white neighborhood, and I was on my way to his house to go over some of my work when I was stopped by police. I was interrogated, and held until I convinced them to call my professor to verify my story. So yes, Ms. Clemmons. Racial profiling is very real and it effects what I do every day of my life. I’m smart enough to know that the police have an important job to do, but I’m scared to death every time I see a police car in my rear view mirror.”

  “Thank you, Darrin. Undoubtedly, the officers you mentioned were members of the Midtown Squad. I’d like to hear the reaction of Captain Dwayne Short who is in charge of the Midtown Squad. How do you respond to Mr. Farmer’s story?”

  “Unfortunately, Ms. Clemmons, I have no doubt what he says is true. I would be either a fool or a liar if I said that none of my men were guilty of racial profiling. There is no doubt there are officers who think they are the second coming of Dirty Harry. I know that a number of them have a ‘kick-butt first and ask questions later’ mentality, but we are making every effort to re-educate these officers and let them know this is not acceptable behavior. We have instituted mandatory classes to address these issues.

  “I have no illusions that things are going to change overnight. It’s very difficult to alter patterns of behavior which are deeply ingrained, but our promise to the community is we will continue to address this problem. The message to our men in uniform is racial bigotry and racial profiling will not be tolerated, and if they are unwilling to accept this policy, they will be replaced.

  “Be that as it may, the public also needs to understand that no matter whether you’re black, white or any other race, if you break the law, we will come after you. That’s our primary mission --- to serve and protect the law-abiding citizens of Kansas City.”

  “Thank you Captain Short. We have just heard from an African-American man how racial profiling has affected his life. I’d like to turn that around and look at the same issue from a different perspective.

  “Our next guest is Mr. Roman Postnikoff. He and his wife own and operate a liquor store on Independence Avenue and live just a few blocks away. Mr. Postnikoff, can you tell us how things have changed for you over the past thirty years?”

  “Yes, Ms. Clemmons. My wife and I came to Kansas City in 1972. We purchased a home on Indiana and opened the liquor store. When we moved into the neighborhood, most of the other homeowners were Caucasian, like us, but over the years, the demographics changed. I think that there are only two other white couples still on our block. That hasn’t been a problem for us. We get along very well with our neighbors.

  “The problem is at our liquor store. We go to work every day, and every day we fear for our lives. It’s not our regular customers that we fear. We have been serving patrons of all races for over forty years. It’s the younger generation of black males who frighten us every time they enter our store. They come in with their pants barely covering their private parts and playing loud rap music. I see them hanging out on street corners harassing people from the neighborhood. I know that other shopkeepers in the area have been terrorized by young males just like them. When they come in, my wife locks herself in a back storage room.
I --- I have a loaded gun under the counter by the cash register, and my greatest fear is that one day I will have no choice but to use it on some young man like Tyrell Jackson or Rashan Tweedy.”

  “Thank you Mr. Postnikoff. My question to our audience is whether or not you believe Mr. Postnikoff is a racial bigot. If indeed the day comes when he must use deadly force to protect his store and his wife, how will he be seen by the community?

  “There was a very interesting article in the Kansas City Star recently that I believe speaks to this very issue. It was written by Leonard Pitts, a black columnist for the Miami Herald. In the article, he is talking about an incident in South Carolina where a white man shoots an African-American boy. He asks the same question I just asked, is the shooter necessarily a racist? Let me read a portion of his article.”

  He probably isn’t, at least not in the way we understand the term. But what he is, is a citizen of a country where the fear of black men is downright viral. That doesn’t mean he burns crosses on the weekend. It means he has watched television, seen a movie, used a computer, read a newspaper or magazine. It means he is alive and aware in a nation where one is taught from birth that thug equals black, suspect equals black, danger equals black.

  Thus has it been since the days of the chains, since the days of lynch law, since the days newspapers ran headlines like ‘Helpless Co-Ed Ravished by Black Brute.’ It is the water we drink and the air we breathe, a perception out of all proportion to any objective reality, yet it infiltrates the collective subconscious to such an unholy degree that even black men fear black men.

  I had just heard two very different but very similar stories. One from a black youth who had grown up being fearful of police, and now this editorial from a black columnist saying that the fear of young black males is so ingrained in our society, it’s almost like a genetic predisposition.

  Immediately, the story of Lieutenant Cable and Liat from the movie South Pacific came to mind. Cable loved the Tonkinese beauty, but being Philadelphia born and raised, he just couldn’t get past the prejudices that had been ingrained in him as a youth. It seemed the words he sang in despair over fifty years ago explained a lot about what we were hearing today.

  You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear

  You’ve got to be taught from year to year

  It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear

  You’ve got to be carefully taught

  Black fathers are teaching their sons to fear the brutal white police and white parents are admonishing their children to steer clear of black men with dreadlocks, wearing baggy pants and listening to rap music.

  When you grow up listening to what the adults in your life believe to be true, it becomes part of who you are and that is very difficult to change.

  Andrea Clemmons snapped me out of my reverie.

  “Now, I’d like to hear from Henry Johnson, the pastor of the Mt. Zion Community Church, or Brother Hank, as his parishioners call him.”

  I had met Brother Hank several years earlier. His father, Spats Johnson, had passed away and Brother Hank had found a previously unknown tape of a famous recording artist among his things. The tape was quite valuable and his wife, Gracie, was abducted with the kidnappers demanding the tape in exchange for her life.

  Brother Hank was a good friend of my favorite cleric, Pastor Bob of the Community Christian Church. The two of them worked together, providing ministry to the inner city by supporting a refuge for battered women, a shelter for the homeless and a soup kitchen.

  “Brother Hank,” Andrea continued, “you’re a black man, and through your church’s outreach programs, you work with black youth like Rashan Tweedy and Tyrell Jackson every day. You’ve heard how young men like these two can be pushed to the breaking point by relentless racial profiling and bigotry, and you’ve also heard how the behavior of these same young black men perpetuate the stereotype of fear and danger. This seems to be a vicious circle. How do you see the situation from your perspective and what can be done to break this vicious circle?”

  “Yes, Ms. Clemmons. Every day I see both sides of this coin. I talk to many young black men who are angry and frustrated by the constant harassment from the police, and I’m very encouraged by Captain Short’s remarks. It’s certainly a step in the right direction.

  “I also see women battered by the men in their lives, seeking shelter for themselves and their terrified children. I see young men who have dropped out of school hanging out on street corners. These things need to change as well.

  “Comedian Bill Cosby took his brothers and sisters to task in his infamous ‘pull up your pants’ speech. It certainly ruffled some feathers, but it drives home a point. I have a few paragraphs from his speech that I’d like to share.

  They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk: Why you ain't, Where you is, What he drive, Where he stay, Where he work, Who you be... And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. And then I heard the father talk.

  I am talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit. Where were you when he was 2? Where were you when he was 12? Where were you when he was 18 and how come you didn't know that he had a pistol? And where is the father? Or who is his father?

  Today a woman has eight children with eight different 'husbands' — or men or whatever you call them now. We have millionaire football players who cannot read. We have million-dollar basketball players who can't write two paragraphs. We as black folks have to do a better job.

  We cannot blame the white people any longer.

  “The police department has to do its part, but so do we, and that means being responsible, getting an education and leading productive lives, so that other people’s expectations of us don’t become self-fulfilling prophecies.”

  “Thank you Brother Hank. You touched on a very important point, taking responsibility. I’d like to address that issue with Mr. Brian Dalton, a representative of the Advancement Project.

  “Mr. Dalton, I know the mission of the Advancement Project is to disseminate ideas, and pioneer models which inspire a national racial justice movement to achieve opportunity and a just democracy. A part of your program is to encourage the black community to be more engaged in the political process.

  “A case in point is the city across the state that experienced a terrible tragedy and raised the same issues that we’re dealing with here today.

  “There is one major difference. Kansas City’s population is roughly 60% white and 30% black. 70% of the police officers are white, but we have a black chief and a black mayor. The population of the other city is 67% black, but only three of fifty-three police officers are black and the chief and mayor are white.

  “Your organization has been working with the people there for several months, encouraging them to register and vote so that the elected officials and police force can more accurately reflect the racial composition of the city. Yet, after months of work in that city, the deadline for voter registration has passed and less than 150 new voters registered. How do you account for that?”

  “I wish I knew, Ms. Clemmons. I can only speculate that the people there, frustrated by a lifetime of repression, are more interested in instant gratification than long-term solutions. They are looking for immediate results, and believe their marching, protests and sit-ins will bring them the relief they so desperately need. Unfortunately, that’s rarely the way reform works. Sure, there may be some concessions forthcoming to appease the angry citizens, but a lasting solution will only come from within as people become more engaged in the system which actually controls their lives.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Dalton. We have explored at some length, the frustration which the black community feels as a result of racial profiling, and how that very frustration might have contributed to the tragic death of Tyrell Jackson.

  “The death of Rashan Tweedy was another matter altogether. There is no doubt Mr. Tweedy fired the shot which t
ook the life of Officer Martin Mulloy and was threatening his partner when Officer Walt Williams intervened.

  “This, of course, has sparked protests from supporters of the police department who point out, and correctly so, that each and every day, brave officers put their lives on the line to maintain law and order for the rest of us.

  “At this time, I’d like to speak to Officer Williams about the incident at the Bodega.”

  Okay, here it comes, I thought. I had been listening with great interest to all the other speakers, but I had been dreading the moment when the spotlight was turned on me.

  “Officer Williams, I understand you and your partner were actually off duty on the night of the incident.”

  “Yes, Ma’am. That’s right.”

  “How, then, did the two of you happen to be in the vicinity of the Bodega that evening?”

  “Willie Duncan told me a mutual friend had heard on the street that looters were going to hit a convenience store owned by his sister and her husband. We just went there to help out in case that proved to be true.”

  “Let me get something straight. Willie Duncan, Louie, his friend, and the owners of the Bodega are all people of color. Is that correct?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why then, did you and your partner, two white off-duty cops, feel you needed to respond?”

  “Because that’s what friends do.”

  She paused to let my answer take effect.

  “So did any looters actually show up that night?”

  “Yes, Rashan Tweedy and his buddy came by for the express purpose of robbing the store, but our presence made them have a change of heart.”

  “Why didn’t you arrest them?”

  “Because they hadn’t actually broken any laws. If we had detained them at that point we would have been doing exactly what is being condemned here today.”

  “And yet, if you had, Officer Malloy might be alive today.”