By Mansfield Frazier
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
–The quote is commonly attributed to Martin Luther King, Jr, but actually was first made by Theodore Parker, a Unitarian minister and noted abolitionist, on the eve of the Civil War.
It took awhile, but anyone with common sense knew they were coming … the situation here in Cleveland was so horrible they really had no choice but to mount up, ride in from Washington, and announce “There’s a new sheriff in town.” And seriously, it’s about goddamn time.
While the 137 shots might have been the straws that broke the proverbial camel’s back, it wasn’t the most egregious case, since, like it or not, the officers can claim they felt their lives were in danger at the time (which we all know is total bullshit). But there is one of those tiny grains of doubt cops have historically used to get off sans any sanctions — no matter how outrageous their conduct.
No, it was the case where officer Martin Lentz used the head of a handcuffed man (Edward Henderson) — who was lying prone on the ground — for a football that most likely was the deciding incident that made the folks at the Department of Justice (DOJ) realize something was seriously wrong with policing in Cleveland. And try as they might, police union officials won’t be able to blame this (and similar such outrageous incidents) on current Police Chief Michael McGrath, accusing him of “not providing leadership.” This type of scurrilous police misconduct predates McGrath’s tenure by decades. This is a police force that’s been out of control for as long as anyone can remember.
Indeed, back in 2002, Cleveland and other cities were subjects of DOJ’s Civil Rights Division investigations but then-President George W. Bush ordered the department to stand down and nothing ever came of it. So we’ve been waiting for over a decade for the Cavalry to get here.
The current head of that division, Thomas Perez, who said at the press conference held in Cleveland last week that staff attorneys would “peel the onion to its core” has recently been nominated by President Obama to become Secretary of Labor. Who his replacement will be, and how vigorously they will pursue abuse cases around the country is yet to be determined, but if history is any indication the wheels of justice — which at the federal level grind agonizingly slow but exceedingly fine — will continue to turn.
All of this attention places the ball squarely in County Prosecutor Tim McGinty’s court.
And while there’s enough blame to go around in terms of who is responsible for the Cleveland police “onion” being rotten to the core, the major media in town (which is culpable and should be held accountable) will no doubt escape unscathed. It was the media that made a serial-killer, some would characterize as a psychopath — albeit one that was armed with a badge and gun — into a “supercop” that other, younger, impressionable officers coming onto the force might attempt to emulate.
In his more than 35 years on the force Jim Simone murdered five people and shot at 11 more, setting a sick American body-count record that hopefully will never even be approached by another cop … let alone surpassed. It truly says something disgusting about our culture (and society in general) when we make heroes out of legal mass murders … simply because they carried a badge along with their gun while doing their grizzly deeds.
Jim Simone excelled at one thing: Knowing the rule book so well that he knew exactly when he could get away with murder. He recognized (and here’s the important part) actively looked for any and every opportunity to buss a cap in someone’s ass.
True, he risked his own life on more than one occasion (although no one asked or forced him to) which only proves that he holds life itself — even his own — to be very cheap. But his oftentimes foolish exploits didn’t give him the right to take another human’s life. It should not have turned into his twisted game of “for every life I save, I get to take one.”
Simone was literally a wild man that other, more calm and mature officers — who simply wanted to do a professional job and safely go home to their families at night — refused to work with whenever they could avoid doing so. And yes, I’ve been told this by more than one veteran Cleveland police officer who loathed Simone and his deplorable tactics.
The fact is, most officers go through their entire careers without firing the weapon at anyone … and that’s the way they like it. Indeed, there’s only a few, a handful, of officers like Simone on any American police force (it’s usually less than 10 percent of the officers that are involved in 90 percent of the wrongdoing on any department) but the dirty little secret is that other officers — and yes, even the high command structure — know who the bad apples are … and do absolutely nothing to remove them for the safety and good of the citizenry. They draw a thick blue-line circle of protection around every officer … good or bad — and yes, even sick suspected serial killers.
After the second killing (and certainly after the third) someone on the Cleveland Police Department should have had the authority to place Simone behind a desk to protect the public from this sicko, but he had the protection of the police union so he was able to continue his killing spree for 35 years. Which proves what everyone knows: the police union contract is the real root of the problem. Officers engage in bad conduct because they feel (and have been right in 99 percent of the cases) the union will back them no matter how beyond the Pale their conduct becomes.
Rouge officers’ fallback position is “hey, it’s a tough job out there on the streets, and we gotta get just as tough every now and then” … to which some citizens logically respond: If it’s so tough, why don’t they just simply quit? Black officers patrol the same streets and, per capita, shot at or kill far less citizens than white officers.
Not for nothing does the Black Shield — the organization of black police officers — exist; they generally were not welcome at the Squad Car (the union hall where meetings resemble Klan rallies). It simply could be minority officers and women — who are less prone to violence — might make the shooters look bad by comparison.
What the DOJ will be looking for and correcting is the root and cause of the culture that takes rookie officers and turns them into haters who become members of an army of occupation in minority communities. But trust this: The feds know which rocks to look under, and they’ve been doing this for so long they already know what kind of snakes will be crawling out from under them. And they also are oh so very good at cutting off blue-suited reptilian heads. Is that a hissing sound I hear?
But to characterize all white police officers as simple racists would be wrong and doing the majority of the fine men and women in blue a disservice; most officers certainly are not racists, but the ones that are will step off in anyone’s ass, be they black, Hispanic, or white. They wrongly make it an “us versus them” construct in which “them” can be anybody … thus turning their motto: “To Serve and Protect” into a sick joke.
Along with the union contract, the other big part of the problem is that good and decent officers — whose stomachs are turned by the arrogant misdeeds of the tiny minority of rouge cops — stand by and do nothing in the face of such criminal behavior. In Ohio that’s called misfeasance in public office, which could and should be prosecuted to the hilt, but never is. The reason is that prosecutors and police are too often in league which an inpediment to justice being served.
The one person I truly feel sorry for is Cleveland Police Union President Jeff Follmer. When he first came into office an acquaintance of mine (who happens to be black) casually stated to me that for years he had been a close neighbor of Follmer’s, and that in his estimation, the police officer was truly a decent human being. I took him at his word, and after years of dealing with that chowderhead Steve Loomis I felt that virtually anyone would be an improvement … or at least I thought so at the time.
Follmer is a classic example of how an embedded culture can corrupt an individual. His job description includes defending gross wrongdoing by union members … behavior sometimes so wrong he probably — at least at first — had trouble looking at his own face in the mirror, or getting a good night’s sleep. But slowly, bit by bit, the dirty job grew on him … that’s how corruption of the soul occurs: A little at a time, until it overwhelms and corrodes heart, body and mind.
The union head can continue to attempt to blame Chief McGrath for all of the ills of the department, but he should realize he’s only making himself look more and more foolish with each disingenuous comment. Simply changing the chief will change nothing, and he knows it … unless a new chief is installed who’s more willing to turn a blind eye to misdeeds, give out pats on the back and “attaboys” for bad behavior, and pass out commendation medals like so many candy kisses to known rouge cops for capping a suspect every now and then.
As a self-insuring municipality, the amount of payouts to families of victims is simply staggering; we certainly can find a better use for out tax dollars.
What Follmer should be doing instead of covering up for bad cops is trying to figure out how to redeem himself in the eyes of whatever just God he prays to. Judgment Day always comes, either on earth — or somewhere else.
At some point he — along with everyone else — has got to realize: The jig is finally up … it’s game, set match. It’s all over but the shouting (and there no doubt will be plenty of that before the dust finally settles). But for all practical purposes the stupid shit is — thankfully, at last! — done, finished, kaput.
The feds are here and no longer will there be a need for anyone to shine a spotlight into the dark recesses of the Cleveland Division of Police.
As Jesus said, “My work is done here.”
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.