By Mansfield Frazier
It’s all too easy to ascribe racial motivations to the members of the Cleveland Division of Fire that were recently suspended and demoted for placing a photo of a former black fire chief in a urinal and pissing on it at a Westside bar where a party was being held to celebrate the graduation of a group of new recruits from the Fire Academy.
While the prank certainly was juvenile and disrespectful, I suspect the photo of a white fire chief would receive the same treatment if he dared to attempt to hold members of that organization accountable and to higher standards of conduct like the black chief did.
What the incident reveals is an arrogance and sense of entitlement found all too often in a small percentage of members of safety forces, not just here in Cleveland, but in the entire country. Uniforms, and the power they convey to those who wear them — be they safety forces or military — can be corruptive to some that put them on. If they’ll piss on a photo of a former chief, there’s just no telling how wet they’re willing to make the public.
The feeling for some individuals (again, only a small percentage) who take a vow to “Protect and Serve” can become one of … “Since I’m willing to voluntarily take on a sometimes dangerous job to protect the citizenry, I have the right to piss on the public from time to time if I so choose.”
No. No you don’t have that right. You took the job because you wanted it; no one forced you to do so, and you can always quit.
Alas, this type of human frailty is hard to protect against, but can — and should — be rooted out in the vetting process, before the individual is hired on. Indeed, some fire and police officers — and members of the military as well — have a sense of entitlement due to the fact a father, uncle or other family member also served in uniform; they view it as part of their tradition and heritage … a birthright. But it’s not something that should almost automatically be handed down from one generation to the next, no matter the fitness of the individual … or lack thereof.
Currently branches of the U.S. military are in quiet crisis over the persistent problem of fairly widespread rapes. And the problem continues primarily due to the fact that all too often, senior officers — who tend to exculpate rather than root out offenders — are in charge of the investigations. The rapists know they have a good chance of being protected rather than seriously held accountable for their actions.
When members of Congress attempted to take these types of cases out of the chain of command they were frustrated due to the strength of the military culture in America. The feeling that “Boys will be boys” is still far too prevalent in our armed services, and such notions often spill over to quasi-military organizations like police and fire departments. While rape of fellow service members is relatively rare in civilian life, financially raping the public is much more commonplace.
To wit: In January of this year “… more than 100 retired New York City police and firefighters [were] indicted in a massive Social Security disability scam involving hundreds of millions of dollars. More than half the recipients received funds for fraudulent claims for PTSD in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the World Trade Center.”
Numerous other cases of police and firefighters falsely claiming disabilities abound around the country, and virtually all of these liars are aided and abetted by doctors, lawyers, “consultants” and union officials skilled in the art of deception; the same individuals who teach flawed applicants how to lie and hide their flaws to get on these departments in the first place. These men and women feel as if they are entitled to steal from the public.
It’s an open secret among hardworking, dedicated and honest members of safety forces who the scoundrels are, but quite simply there really isn’t an effective mechanism in place to get them off the force. Once they pass a psychological exam (often administered by someone who is rooting for them to pass, and actually aids them) absent some wildly outrageous or criminal conduct, they’re in for life. And union rules are firmly in place to protect them forever, no matter their conduct.
When members of Cleveland’s police forces are taken off the street (say, for kicking a handcuffed man in the head as he lay prone on the ground) where do some of them go? Why, to the Police Academy, of course, to train incoming officers. Hey, somebody’s got to show these new recruits the proper way to kick a mentally ill person while they’re down. Right? Who’s making these decisions anyway?
Certainly the pissing prank should have been investigated and punishment meted out, but, since the feds are here investigating Cleveland’s safety forces, why don’t they take a hard look at all of the former police and firemen who are out on permanent disability (usually signed off on by an all too accommodating doctor) that now have second careers running charter fishing boats and home remodeling companies? Does anyone in their right mind think such behavior is limited to safety forces in New York City?
And speaking of 9-11, most people probably missed this story because it was quickly killed: When the dust settled, investigators found stacks and stacks of designer jeans in the cab of a fire truck at the World Trade Center. Obviously, while some firefighters were risking their lives to help others, a few were taking to opportunity to steal.
But here’s the point: When the story broke, fire union officials howled in such righteous indignation that it quickly disappeared. How dare the media tell the truth? This is the kind of stonewalling that perpetuates bad behavior, and until the “Blue Wall of Silence” is torn down once and for all, we can expect that some members of safety forces will continue to act out badly and then wrap themselves in the flag for protection.
With that said, I have nothing but the deepest admiration and respect for the dedicated men and women who put on uniforms to protect the public … but nothing but scorn for the few who betray their oaths. We owe it to the good ones to root out the bad ones.
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.