By Mansfield Frazier
The column I wrote last week, according to some folks whose opinions I respect, went over the top when I engaged in printing scuttlebutt from current and retired police officers regarding the promotion of two members of the department. Upon rereading the piece I can see their point, and am willing to admit I might have gone a bit too far; for that I sincerely apologize.
I should always remain keenly aware of the fact that any perceived negative comments or criticisms of our safety forces are going to strike a nerve … as well they should. But for too long members of safety forces here in Cleveland — similar to other cities across the country — have held themselves virtually immune from criticism, which is unhealthy and results in a cowboy mentality that resulted in 137 shots being fired into a car carrying two unarmed individuals.
To those who blame the victims for their own deaths by asking “Why didn’t they just pull over instead of leading police on a 23 minute chase?” the answer is simple: In their minds they simply wanted to live 23 minutes longer. To suppose that the outcome would have been different if they had immediately pulled over is a leap of faith many in the minority community are just not willing to make. One officer, thinking he had been fired upon, could have shot them just as dead.
But my reason for writing about the incident at all at this juncture is because we’re soon going to have a golden opportunity (courtesy of the U.S. Department of Justice) to change how safety forces and citizens interact … and we should take care not to blow it. And the only way to maximize the opportunity is by speaking truth to power. The media cannot play softball with a police department that always (and I do mean always) plays hardball, otherwise the public will come off as badly as a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest.
It’s not just incidents where police are under fire (or mistakenly think they are) and snap bad judgments are made that in hindsight prove to be troubling … it’s the purposeful, planned, and diabolically executed schemes that law enforcement — and by “law enforcement” I mean police, prosecutors, and forensic experts — engage in to obtain convictions that wrongfully rob people of their liberty that we should find more troubling.
Case in point, two men, Thomas Siller and Walter Zimmer just won a $1.3 million lawsuit against the City of Cleveland because a crime laboratory technician, Joseph Serowik, fabricated blood evidence against the pair and then went into court and flat out lied on the witness stand … knowing that he had full immunity from criminal prosecution … and therein lies the problem.
Law enforcement officials should be shielded from prosecution for making honest mistakes in the course of their work, but Serowik (as many other lab technicians across the country have been guilty of) purposefully took the witness stand and testi-lied — the practice is so common it’s been given a name — for the police and prosecutors, and no one should be immune from prosecution for sending innocent people to prison.
This “win at any and all costs, truth be damned” mentality on the part of law enforcement is indeed frightening, and causes thinking members of the citizenry to question outcomes as well as motivations. No one in America should be above prosecution for wrongdoing, period.
City fathers should welcome honest criticism of safety forces. As Cleveland continues to make amazing strides in terms of rebuilding downtown and re-branding our town, they have to realize that negative publicity hurts our chances of attracting extravaganzas like the GOP national convention, as well as efforts to entice newcomers to move to Cleveland: No one wants to be in a city where safety forces are perceived to be out of control.
However, strides are being made — by fits and starts — to correct the deficiencies of the police force. In an excellent move by Mayor Jackson, Deputy Chief Calvin Williams was made the new chief of the department, but he almost immediately gave himself a self-inflicted wound. Not a terminal wound, but one he certainly could have done without.
One of his first acts was to “agree” with former Second District Commander Keith Sulzer that the much loved and respected officer should step down in favor of another commander that Chief Williams had a better rapport with.
Now granted, a police chief has the right to be comfortable with the commanders who serve under him, but if he had it to do over again he no doubt would have handled the situation with Sulzer differently. Chief Williams made an honest, straightforward manpower decision in the Sulzer affair without realizing that any high level decision made by a police chief is, in part, political. This can be chalked up to a rookie mistake.
What Williams could have done is announced that in order to fulfill his mission of turning the department around it was critical that he promote Captain Sulzer to deputy chief … thus accomplishing the same goal of replacing him as the Second District Commander without appearing to kick the citizens of that district in the shins.
But the die is cast now; the deed is done and can’t be undone … not if Chief Williams is going to serve as an effective leader — and the residents of the Second District should understand that, lick their wounds, and move on.
However, one interesting aspect of this whole dustup is that not one of the minorities — be they elected officials or ministers — that clamored so loudly for a police chief of color opened their mouths to defend Chief Williams, and they should be ashamed of themselves.
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.