White Girl Bleed A Lot

by Colin Flaherty

  No one listened.

  The police were befuddled. They even made a plea in the local paper, asking anyone with information to call it in. Or call CrimeStoppers and collect a reward. So my brother and I talked about it on the radio on Friday afternoon, August 17, including FamEntertainment’s plans for another big party at Spot 200 for the following evening. We also talked about a member of the Wilmington City Council who said anyone who opposed Barack Obama was a racist, and a prominent local black minister who said that black mob violence is due to four hundred years of oppression.5

  I found out that by Friday night, anyone subscribing to their Facebook or Twitter stream received the following message: The party was cancelled. But the next Saturday night, August 25, the back to school party was back on. This time in Dover, Delaware, near the campus of Delaware State University, a black college.

  As to the reward from CrimeStoppers? I’m still waiting.

  THE RACE RIOT THAT NEVER HAPPENED

  If you ever visit Wilmington, Delaware, you will probably hear about Tommy Burke. Or at least see his art work. He makes bird houses modeled on actual homes, and they are something of a local tradition. They are very nice to look at and very lucrative for this self-styled sixty-year-old, liberal hippy.

  In the summer of 2012 Tommy was returning home after a libation or two at the local watering hole when he passed through a crowd of forty black people—mostly teenagers—milling around outside of a party. Before he went fifty yards, he was surrounded by five black people from the group. They demanded money and threatened to beat him up. “They said I was just a guy who drank too much and I couldn’t fight back,” Burke said. “I took off my glasses, put my false teeth in my pocket and told them that was not going to happen.”

  Burke surprised the mob, and himself, when he punched one of his robbers. After a few more blows were exchanged, the five teenagers ran back toward the party empty handed. Two women, probably mothers of the kids from the party, begged Burke not to call the police. “I told them I just got mugged,” Burke said. “Of course I was going to call the police.”

  Police records show that they got the call at 11:58 p.m. Police showed up within five minutes, just after the midnight curfew. Despite the curfew, many people from the party were loitering in and wandering through adjacent neighborhoods. Police called for back-up and within ten minutes a police van was on the scene. Soon, twenty-four curfew violators were on their way to a nearby YMCA—a safe haven where parents could pick up their children without going to jail or getting a record. After a bit of questioning, they were released. No arrests were made. No one was water boarded. Everyone went home.

  Chandra Pitts, however, weaves a totally different story: A tale of conspiracy, racism, police brutality, official deception, illegal questioning, KKK-tactics, and lots of other “horrific” and “disgusting” things.

  Pitts is the head of One Village Alliance, a social service agency funded by the United Way whose mission is to mentor children in this crime-ridden city of sixty-five thousand. Just a few days before the attack on Burke, Parenting magazine named Wilmington the most “dangerous city in America.” And it’s no wonder; just a few hours before the party, four people were shot. One died.

  Pitts’ version ended up all over the Web before dawn the following day. She vowed to take the story national. She was determined to make it about race. She was determined to say anything to stir up the people. Here is what she posted on her Facebook page for the world to see:

  While Wilmington slept More than 30 innocent children as young as 10 and 12 years old were the victims of the most horrific and disgusting display of bigotry and entrapment in a night that they will remember for the rest of their lives. Parents stood by in outrage but helpless against a force of more than 20 police officers during what was, by the children’s account, a well orchestrated, premeditated attack as the plan was carried out by the Wilmington Police Department, the fully staffed Walnut Street YMCA and the Wilmington Jaycees …. How could this seemingly respected community collaborative be a part of such an elaborate plan that resulted in the illegal entrapment, interrogation and psychological trauma of our children???

  “What she did was like the people stirring up the riots in Egypt and Libya,” said my liberal bother John Flaherty. “Just say anything without even caring if it is true. That is how riots start.”

  SCAN ME!

  VIDEO: Chandra Pitts Interview

  Over the next several days, even after learning what really happened, Pitts repeated her story several times. The first time was a mistake. The second time, a lie. The third and fourth times was something else altogether.

  What really happened is that Pitts dropped off her “brilliant” fifteen-year-old, private-school child at the party at 9 p.m.

  “There was a back to school party,” Pitts told Delawarehiphop.com during a taped interview. “They were giving away book bags and celebrating their last weekend before they had to go back to school.”

  Not true.

  There were no book bags. A flyer for the party billed it as “West Side is Da Best Side teen party,” produced by “BadBoy Allan.” Admission: $10.

  The flyer also cryptically stated “Fuck DJ Ty and his busted speakers.”

  Pitts also claimed the party was sponsored by the Jaycees.

  Not true.

  It was held in their building, but not a Jaycee event, said a former president of the club.

  Pitts also said Wilmington police were working security at the party.

  Not true.

  No police—on duty or off—were present at the party, said Wilmington Police Chief Michael Szczerba.

  “We dropped our children off in broad daylight on a beautiful Saturday evening at 7 p.m.”

  Not true. She dropped her child off at 9 p.m. So she said. She also said many of the children walked there.

  At some point Pitts learned of the robbery. She said a policeman said it happened at “some point in history not a set time but at some point in history, before the party ever began.”

  Not true on either count.

  Tommy Burke was robbed outside the party, during the party, and by “children” from the party. Police never told her anything different.

  Pitts: “Those doors did not open to let those children out into the streets to walk home until 12 midnight.”

  Not true.

  Burke and others say more than twenty people from the party were at a nearby 7-Eleven and milling around adjacent neighborhoods before the party ended at midnight. The chief of police told us on the radio that several of the neighbors—some from blocks away—dialed 911 complaining about the noise and mayhem.

  Pitts also contradicts herself. At one point she said the neighborhood was predominately white; then she said many of the black children lived close enough to walk home. Along with the website Delawarehiphop.com, Pitts concocted a conspiracy theory that was quickly debunked, but that did not prevent her from repeating it to reporters and to the city council. She told them the whole thing was a “sting operation” to illegally question black people about a robbery in that white neighborhood. She claimed the police were in on it, as well as the Jaycees and the YMCA.

  Pitts said the police should have been questioning white people at a nearby bar. “It was an absolute setup and very likely a sting operation from the very beginning,” Pitts said. And once the children were removed to the safe haven center at the YMCA, Pitts claimed an officer confessed as much to her.

  “That is when the cat got leaked out of the bag from the officer’s own mouth to confirm that this in fact was a sting operation to question all of these black children illegally about a robbery that took place in a predominantly white residential area.”

  A couple days later my brother and I interviewed Pitts on our radio program. I asked her why she compared the police to the Klu Klux Klan? And why did you try and make a racial incident out of it? She denied comparing local police to the KKK. She said she was misquoted.

 
Another lie. In the interview with Delawarehiphop.com Pitts compared the police to the KKK. She brought up an incident when

  Three young students were murdered by the Klu Klux Klan. When police officers pull their car over. Detained them. They didn’t charge them with the crime. They never made an arrest. They detained them and let them out in wee hours of the morning (before they were killed) just like our children were released to waiting paddy wagon and police vehicle and dogs.

  Of course Delawarehiphop.com bought it hook, line, and sinker.

  The obvious question, even one that even my liberal brother figured out is: What were ten-year-old kids doing at a teen party at midnight?

  The Delawarehiphop.com audio recording is twenty-three minutes of deception, false accusations, and racial slurs. They also posted a videotape shot in the back of the police wagon by Pitts’ son. That thirty-second film is full of racial obscenities and vulgarities that make it impossible to play even a brief cut on a radio show. Tommy Burke saw the video too. He identified one of the people in the video as one of the people who attacked him.

  Even so, Delawarehiphop.com promised to take the story national. It didn’t work. Saeed Shabazz, a reporter for the Final Call—the Nation of Islam’s newspaper—didn’t buy it. He checked it out and found the story was not true, he told us on the air at WDEL.

  In the end, there were too many questions. Too many phony answers. “Ms. Pitts runs an organization that is supposed to teach children the correct path,” said a poster to Delawareonline.com. “I think I understand why things are out of hand.”6

  Despite the video evidence, no one has ever been arrested for breaking the jaw and glasses of Tommy Burke as they tried to rob him.

  37

  MICHIGAN

  No panic in Detroit

  We don’t need to pick on Detroit. The point of this book is not that Detroit is a hot racial mess. It is. But that is hardly news.

  The point of this book is that other, unexpected places are also suffering from racial violence. Even so, some Detroit news is just too crazy to ignore.

  In September 2012 a mob of forty black people moved into a convenience store and refused to leave. They smoked and cussed and threatened the patrons. It was all caught on video, and they didn’t care. “It’s a Bad Crew gas station,” said one of the mob to the local Fox affiliate. “If you don’t know what that is, I can’t even tell you.”1

  Police, ministers, neighbors, the store owner, and just about everyone else seems powerless to stop them. The owner calls police, but nothing happens. The police “come here and then they leave. Two minutes later they (the mob) are back.”

  The members of the local Perfecting Church, one of Detroit’s largest black congregations, even counseled the members of the mob to stop their evil ways. Nothing changed, which is not all that surprising since even the church’s pastor, Marvin Winans, was a victim of a recent mob robbery. This is the same pastor who gave the eulogy for Whitney Houston.

  Winans was pumping gas in the middle of the day “when a young man approached and asked about the music on his car radio.” That’s when he was sucker punched. Winans “suffered cuts and bruises,” lost a Rolex, a Louis Vuitton wallet, and his 2012 Infiniti SUV. Police are seeking five men in connection with the robbery and beating.2

  In June of the same year another Detroit convenience store had the same problem. A black mob took over the store and told the owners they now owned it. The mob beat a clerk who tried to stop them. “I am shocked he is still alive,” said the store owner. “They came into the gas station and said ‘we own this. This is our hood. This is our gas station. We are going to take whatever we want.’ It’s a war zone.”3

  SCAN ME!

  VIDEO: It’s a War Zone

  After the robbery and beating on the video, the mob left. Several hours later, they returned with a gun and fired some shots, but no one was hurt. It took police nine hours to show up. In many cities, police no longer respond to complaints of shoplifting or “loitering” at neighborhood stores, but they did have some advice for what this business owner should do: “Hire a security guard.”

  In August hundreds of black people were involved in several disturbances at a high school football game. Several witnesses reported gun shots and panic both on and off the field. The Detroit Free Press said anytime you have that many people milling around, “of course there was going to be an incident.”4

  Two weeks later there was a football game where no violence occurred. A sportscaster for the ABC affiliate found this newsworthy enough to write an entire story about it:

  One of the teams played another game, and there was no mass violence.

  There were no fights in the stands and nobody “hit the deck” in fear of their lives.

  Get this: the game was played at night. In Detroit. Between two Public League schools.

  Shocking?

  It shouldn’t be.5

  Violence and lawlessness have long been a hallmark of life in Detroit. So much so, it is now newsworthy when violence and lawlessness do not happen.

  Over in Flint, the car business is weak, but racial violence is booming. Every year Flint holds a vintage car show called “Back to the Bricks” in the downtown area. It lasts several days and is a throwback to the days when Flint used to be an international center of the car business. We don’t have videos of the 2011 riots at the car show. But one year later, we do know this about the 2011 violence: It was much worse than the mayhem of 2012.

  SCAN ME!

  VIDEO: Back to the Bricks Riot

  The 2012 videos show hundreds of black people fighting, destroying property, disregarding police orders and creating mayhem—one with his pants falling down as he chased another person down the street. Dozens were arrested. The local media said compared to the year before, it was a “success.”

  Increased foot patrols and police presence throughout the 2012 Back to the Bricks led to few major incidents and law enforcement deeming the event a security success.

  A fight took place in front of the Land Bank building on Saginaw Street after Back to the Bricks events Saturday evening involving more than 20 people that led to several arrests, according to security guard in the area.

  Twenty to 25 arrests were made Saturday for disorderly conduct involving adults and juveniles.6

  Nine additional police agencies were called in to help—all funded by a Community Mental Health grant. The paper’s editorial board announced the “city must continue to show its best face.” What about the hundreds of people in the video? “Those few bad apples need to be reigned in and not allowed to cast any negative light on events like Back to the Bricks.”7

  If at this point you are wondering if a newspaper’s job is to show a true face, then I guess you are paying attention. Which brings us back to 2011. The first thing we know about the troubles of 2011 is that 2012, was “a lot better.” And the twenty-two people arrested were “less than one percent” of the 2011 attendees.8

  There’s that arrest thing again: If no one gets arrested, nothing happened. In 2011, the people of Flint spoke out. Eyewitness accounts at FlintTalk.com present a more complete view:

  The media won’t be honest with you, but you can find out what is happening on Flint Police operations FACEBOOK. I went there as soon as i started receiving call about violence in downtown Flint last night.

  Flint Police had to keep officers on overtime and called in officers to help. The paddy wagon was called in and officers had to borrow handcuffs as they did not have enough. Even our female officers were said to be “kicking butt” last night as Police attempted to reclaim the streets. Officers assisting from other jurisdictions had Tasers and it seems obvious our Flint officers need them too.

  The evening started badly in Rollingwood as a group of about 15 black males chased and threatened to rape 2 young girls ages 14 and 15. Despite repeated calls to 911 the Rollingwood watch finally called their councilman who called the Police Chief.9

  The Flint newspapers said
there had been “little trouble,” but another eyewitness account says:

  all I have heard is how wonderful and peachy everything was today. Myself, along with others that witnessed what happened tonight, are quite angry that these thugs are endangering the Back to the Bricks.

  I saw the fear in people’s eyes and it was very tense as everyone was rushing away with their families. I came home and listened to the scanner and heard the anxiousness in the officers voices as they were instructed to “walk shoulder to shoulder down Saginaw” in riot control maneuvers.10

  FBI crime statistics rank Flint as one of the most dangerous cities in America. Some wear that as a badge of honor. Others say it is not happening at all.

  Detroit and Flint might get all the glory, but let’s not forget about Grand Rapids. National talk show host Jesse Lee Peterson gives a speech: “How many white people in this audience are afraid of being called racist?” At almost every speech, almost every white person raises their hand.

  Kyle Rogers is one of the few reporters in America who would not have to raise his hand. Rogers writes for the Examiner.com and his story on repressed racial violence in Grand Rapids, Michigan, rocketed around the Internet:

  You didn’t hear about this is the media, but on the weekend of March 24th and March 25th at least seven white people were brutally beaten by mobs of blacks in Grand Rapids, MI. Five of the victims filed police reports. At least two other victims exist, and there are probably others. The local media has refused to report the cruel attacks and the authorities are resisting any serious charges.

  I talked with one of the victims, 37 year old Jacob Palasek. He is a full time student and does computer work part time. He was attacked by a wolf pack of thugs on the corner of Sixth Street and Broadway in Grand Rapids, Michigan just after midnight on March 25th. The location is a mix of stores, offices, and residential neighborhoods. Jacob lives near where he was attacked.