I first met Capt. Sadie when I was the editor of CityNews, an urban weekly newsmagazine. I give him some press coverage for the pet project he was always promoting, Cops & Kids, and I could never get rid of the guy. He certainly never was shy about getting media coverage for the program, which did a lot of great work for children, especially those in disadvantaged communities.
If a child’s bike was stolen, he replace it from the supply he kept stored at the legendary “warehouse.” And every Christmas he sent forth a small army of Santas and Elves, loaded down with toys, to visit inner-city day care centers and spread cheer. Eventually I became one of those Santas.
After at least a dozen visits to my office Capt. Sadie, while waiting for me to finish up a phone call, picked up a copy of my book, which had been prominently on display on a bookshelf for years. He simply had overlooked it. He said, “Gee, I didn’t know that you had been to prison.”
I jokingly responded, “Some cop you are, you’re probably the only police officer in town who didn’t know.” I signed the copy for him, and as he exited my office I recall thinking, “Well, that’s probably the last time I’ll have to be bothered with this guy.”
Boy, was I wrong. The next day he was back with a pair of Cavs tickets for me (this was in the pre-LeBron days) and the seats were so good, Z actually passed me the ball. A few months later I commented on the day he first picked up the copy of my book and said, “I was pretty sure you wouldn’t be coming back to my office after you found out I’d been to prison.”
He looked at me with a bit of hurt in his eyes and said, “Mansfield, I don’t care about who you were then, all I know is who you are now.” From that moment on I held my head a little higher, and with greater resolve than before adopted the attitude that if anyone has a problem with my being in prison, then they had better learn to deal with it, because, in truth, it’s their problem and I quite simply won’t allow them to make it mine.
However, knowing Joe Sadie was not without some downsides. He once called me and asked me to come down to the middle of the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge to talk with a dude who threatening to jump. It seems he had not gotten this job with this large construction company and was despondent. Joe knew that I was involved in some home building in Hough so I guess that’s why he called me.
Now, it was an early spring day with a bit of a nip in the air and I was working in my yard when the call came from Capt. Sadie. I’d worked up a bit of a sweat and had taken my sweatshirt off. Nonetheless, I jumped in my pickup truck with nothing but a T-shirt on and drove like a madman down Carnegie, and when I got to the bridge it was blocked off by police cars. I jumped out of my truck, which caused one of the officers to jump out of his car and reach for his Taser. I guess maybe he thought I was coming to give the guy a push into the water instead of trying to save him.
Anyway, I called Sadie and he radioed the officers to allow me onto the bridge so that I could talk to the guy. While it had been a bit nippy around my yard, it was downright cold on that bridge. I’m talking about one of those late spring days when just a bit of white stuff can been seen swirling in the air. Oh, Capt. Sadie had on a short sleeve shirt also.
So we’re freezing our asses off while this guy is trying to make up his mind if he wants to take a header off the bridge. I’d never been in this type of situation before so after promising the dude that I could get him some construction work with another company I didn’t know what else to say, so I tried some humor.
By this point I’d established a bit of a relationship with Dennis, so I asked him if he was a screamer or a flapper. “What?” he replied. I then told him that some people, on the way down, scream … while others flap their arms and try to fly. Sadie is standing on the other side of the guy trying not to laugh, which would have been pretty hard to do since by that time we were really, really cold.
Finally Joe says to Dennis, “Look, lets get off this cold-assed bridge, and if Mansfield doesn’t come through with the job like he’s promising, I’ll bring you back tomorrow and you can jump then.” Dennis smiled and climbed back over the railing … and yes, I got him a job. He still calls me on Fathers’ Day … Dennis that is.
Being around Capt. Sadie I’ve also learned that cops and convicts have one thing in common: They’re prone to playing sometimes brutal tricks on each other. When people got up to speak at the retirement party Water Department Chief of Police Billy Tell, who served with Capt. Sadie for years, told of the time they found out Joe’s hotel room number while the captain was on vacation with his family in Las Vegas. They called in the middle of the night and told him the hotel was on fire and that the hotel was to be evacuated.
“What did Sadie do?” Billy Tell asked. “Instead of rushing out of the room he’s asking if he can get some comps!”
Tell also made another remark that has to do with the comment I made earlier about those in attendance. He stated that a number of black ministers should be ashamed of themselves for not personally being at the event to honor Sadie, or at least sending someone in their stead. And I wholeheartedly concur. I’ve been down at the warehouse year after year as these preachers back up trucks and vans and load them to overflowing with tons of brand new toys and gifts for children, and for them to not show their gratitude to Capt. Sadie is downright un-charitable, and borders on being un-Christian.
I won’t name names, but if you’re a member of an eastside congregation and every year your church gets tons of toys donated, ask the preacher if they came from the North Pole or from Joe Sadie. And then ask them if they took the time to properly think him for all that he did for everyone he came into contact with over his 43-year career. For all of those ingrates, Capt. Joe Sadie, please allow me to say a sincere “thank you.” No one deserves it more than you.
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://www.frombehindthewall.com.
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