“Truth will out.” — William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
The fact is, when Pandora’s box opens up you just never know what’s going to come tumbling out. Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III, who staunchly defended his police force and city manager, found that out the hard way. He repeatedly stated that he didn’t feel there were any problems of a racial nature in his city, but emails and text messages between officials there told a different story. Now it seems as if every other day someone else is resigning or being terminated due primarily to the ugly comments that were bantered back and forth for years.
When the Department of Justice (DOJ) cleared Ferguson police officer Darrin Wilson of any wrongdoing in the killing of Michael Brown, Attorney General Eric Holder said his Civil Rights Division was ready to take any and all steps that are needed to reform the city’s police department, including the potential dismantling of the force if that became necessary. “We are prepared to use all the powers that we have to ensure that the situation changes there. That means everything from working with them to coming up with an entirely new structure,” said Holder.
Cleveland officials should take careful note of the attorney general’s remarks.
Obviously, when making scurrilous comments via text messaging and email, some folks think these means of communication is similar to spoken words — once they are out of the mouth they’re gone forever; not true. In fact, the opposite is true; they’re around forever — provided some organization has the ability and capacity to retrieve them, which is what the DOJ did in Ferguson.
Now, if no city or police union official (or rank and file cop for that matter) has tweeted, texted or email something so derogatory it could get them fired, then everything in Cleveland is just hunky-dory; however, if garbage of the nature found in Ferguson is out there somewhere in the Internet cloud, some dudes — provided they have an ounce of brains — should by now be as nervous as a bunch of ‘hos in church.
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Here’s something totally amazing: Officials, be they in Ferguson or Cleveland, are so accustomed to having their own way, so used to being the final say in police matters (such as when to release information) that even when they know the DOJ is peeking over their shoulder, modifying their behavior seemingly doesn’t cross their febrile little minds.
Habit is a bitch … but it can get one in big trouble.
Case in point: Cleveland police were recently equipped with body cameras to insure transparency, but what happens the first time an incident is captured on video? The city’s Law Department, probably in an attempt to set precedent, says the video recording of the shooting incident (where a 64-year-old Cleveland resident, Theodore J. Johnson opened fire on police officers and was killed by return fire) doesn’t have to be released to the public due to an ongoing investigation.
Now city officials might be able to blow smoke up the butts of residents with this response, but I guarantee you the DOJ sees this behavior for what it really is: Intransigence … an unwillingness on the part of city officials to change the way policing is done here in Cleveland. And believe this: The feds are taking copious notes.
When the deal finally goes down in regards to the implementation of the consent decree this is just another example that is going to cause the feds to come out guns blazing … and they’ll no doubt have plenty of ammunition in the form of smarmy and racist comments by some men (and perhaps women) in blue. Which doesn’t mean city officials and police union leaders won’t fight back; it’ll just mean they’ll have about as much chance of winning as a bunch of one-legged men in an ass-kicking contest.
[Photo: Mo Riza]
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.