The Saturday before “Bloody Sunday” President Barack Obama journeyed to Selma, Alabama to make one of the most impassioned and inspiring — not to mention longest) speeches of his tenure as a resident of the Oval Office. He traced America’s oftentimes-turbulent history from the founding of the Republic, up to the present troubles with police brutality.
What should be of particular note to us here in Cleveland as city officials grapple with the Department of Justice over the terms of a consent decree that would reform the Cleveland Division of Police, were the president’s remarks on the subject: “… we can make sure our criminal justice system serves all and not just some. Together, we can raise the level of mutual trust that policing is built on – the idea that police officers are members of the communities they risk their lives to protect, and citizens in Ferguson and New York and Cleveland just want the same thing young people here marched for,” he said.
As we now are about to enter another phase of the ongoing debate over how to fix the problems hereabouts, the ugly term of “recall” is bandied about, some would say carelessly. And, while I personally feel that mounting such an effort would do harm to the city just as we are experiencing an era of rebirth, it’s completely understandable that many folks are feeling boxed in: They want to support Mayor Jackson, but believe he is wrong to dig his heels in regarding negotiations with the feds.
The whole question of recall would go away if the mayor simply asked for his Special Assistant Marty Flask and Safety Director Michael McGrath to resign so that we can start off with a clean slate as we tackle the already tough job of repairing relations between Cleveland cops and the citizenry … a job these two only make tougher by their continued presence.
Of course there are some people whistling past the graveyard on this issue of recall; simply positing that it can’t or won’t happen. And while I truly wish that it doesn’t … what if it does? What if enough valid signatures are collected to put the issue before the voters — what then?
A very distracting political Battle Royale will ensue, with the mayor (whose has a $2 million war chest) and his wealthy supporters reasoning they can carry the day at the ballot box via their ability to flood the media with messages. And, given the fact that the side with the most money usually wins in any political contest, their reasoning is logical.
But — and there’s always a “but” in politics — what if, at just the right moment before the recall vote, President Obama weighs in on the side of the feds (who probably would be rooting for the recall effort given that Jackson has been unwilling to play ball up to this point) and again calls out Cleveland as one of the places where change must occur in terms of how policing is done? How do you think that would affect the way voters cast their ballots? Now, before anyone quickly dismisses that idea, they really need to have a strong grasp on how power politics plays out in this country.
Eric Holder has the president’s full backing when it comes to changing the culture of policing in America, and to carry out that critical mission they simply cannot afford to go into any city and allow a mayor to pins their ears back; that’s simply not going to happen since so much is at stake nationally.
U.S. Attorney Steven Dettlelbach (who, you should recall, occasionally played pickup basketball with Barack Obama when they were students together at Harvard) has made it crystal clear that he has no intention of being backed onto a corner on this consent decree by Mayor Jackson, and if it means calling in a favor from the White House, then so be it.
Think back, do you recall those old “Roadrunner” cartoons, where Wiley E. Coyote, always thinking he was about to grab the prize, only to be flattened by a boulder or an 18-wheeler? The President of the United States is an 18-wheeler.
Plus, there’s a wise old saying: “You fuck with the bull … you get the horn.”
Watch out, Frank.
[Photo: Marc Nozell]
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.
One Response to “MANSFIELD: Watch Out, Mr. Mayor”
Cicero
What makes you think that the opinion of a liar like Obama would cut any ice. Yeah, I know. “You can keep your doctor.”
As for Holder, do you remember Obama invoking “executive privilege” to cover up the information about Fast and Furious, Holder’s scheme to give guns to Mexican drug lords? 300 Mexicans were killed by Holder’s guns. Holder has been cited for contempt of Congress and should be indicted.
Nobody in Mayor Jackson;’s cabinet has caused the deaths of 300 people.