The two characteristics I value most in a person are loyalty and consistency: You know that a person is going to stick by their beliefs, and not change from day to day. In Tim McGinty’s case, this means he’s going to be loyal to his interpretation of the law and is going to be consistent — even when he’s wrong.
The consistent part is particularly important. If McGinty had all of a sudden changed upon being elected county prosecutor and became a tyrant, bully and prick I wouldn’t think very much of him. But since he harbored all of those traits of character before he got elected to office I have to — albeit sometimes begrudgingly — admire the man. This is who he’s always been — he didn’t change.
And as for McGinty being a racist, while I can’t look inside his heart, I can look at some of his closest friends. And to a person, none of them are in any way racists, nor would they be close friends with McGinty if he had a different worldview than theirs on something as basic as feelings on race. Case closed on that count; the man is not a racist.
And McGinty certainly has more character than his predecessor Bill Mason, who was so politically ambitious that he was only interested in improving his conviction rate — fairness and justice be damned — since he thought that by piling up high numbers of cheap convictions (while completely overlooking the county corruption scandal that was occurring right under his nose) this would help him in his quest to become governor of Ohio. I once wrote of Mason, “He’s not a racist, he’s worse: He’s a politician.”
As blacks we are oftentimes to quick to label someone a racist, which is grossly (and despicably) unfair when the person is not. We are too quick to conflate institutionalized racism with personal racism, which is somewhat understandable given what we’ve faced in this country — but nonetheless this still is onerous.
McGinty, as opposed to Mason, never does anything with an eye on the electorate. He really is above all of that. Nor does he (or will he) do anything to try to prove that he’s not a racist. He knows that he’s not, and that’s good enough for him. He seriously marches to his own drummer.
Another marker of McGinty’s character — at least in my eyes — has to do with the Anthony Green case of a few decades ago. He was one of the prosecutors that railroaded an innocent man to prison to serve 13 years for a rape he didn’t commit. Upon Green’s exoneration and release, McGinty did something that I doubt has ever been done before or since by a member of law enforcement — at least that I am aware of: He apologized to the man he helped to wrongfully convict; he didn’t have to do that. Indeed, members of law enforcement — in their own minds — might not always be right, but in their own eyes they are never wrong, and they never apologize.
Which brings me to McGinty’s wrong reasoning on the Tamir Rice case. Since he knows that he’s not afraid to push for an indictment of the cops involved in the killing of the 12-year-old if he thought that’s what the facts warranted (he proven that by indicting one of the cops involved in the 137-shots incident, which gained him the eternal enmity of the police union), he thinks that he’s right to not to step down, but he’s not.
And here’s why he’s so wrong for not recusing himself: America is freighted down with its racist history. Time after time, in case after case, justice has been denied persons of color who come to the bar of justice seeking fair redress. This is an undeniable part of our past that creates a legitimate distrust of the criminal justice system on the part of black Americans. And since the killing of Michael Brown, the calls for reforms in regards to how the country is policed have increased exponentially; we are in troubling and potentially incendiary times indeed.
By his inflammatory rhetoric, his hiring of dubious “experts”, and his long delay in taking the case to the grand jury, McGinty has made many in the community (both black and white) suspicious of his motives or will to vigorously pursue the case to a just conclusion. He has gone out of his way to poison the conversation.
It’s because of these aforementioned reasons that McGinty — in spite of the fact that he knows in his own mind that he’s going to do the right thing as he sees it — should step down. He’s painted himself into a corner that he cannot escape from, no matter how bullheaded he happens to be. He has broken trust with much of the public, and he either is too self-centered to realize it, or he just doesn’t give a damn.
No one is going to be satisfied with the outcome of the case (no matter what that outcome happens to be) as long as McGinty’s involved in it, no matter how transparent the process has been in his mind. He should know this, but even if he did, it wouldn’t make a difference. Again, he’s bullheaded beyond rhyme or reason.
Perception, not truth, is reality. And the perception will always be that he has tainted this case beyond repair with his combative, take-no-prisoners style. But no one can convince him of that, in spite of the fact that I have to believe that some folks who are close to him have tried, and ultimately failed.
The reality is, McGinty’s continued involvement in this case bespeaks a stubbornness that is unhealthy for the body politic. The prosecutor does not have the commonweal at heart, only his self-righteous need to always have everything his own way, consequences of his actions be damned. And in the end, this is not operating in the best interest of justice.
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.