May
2006
Let’s Not Mix Metaphors on Police Brutality
About 20 people, including Tyrone Dumas, rallied in Judge Michael Brennan‘s courtroom last week to protest tire-slashing sentences that some observers consider harsh in light of the exoneration [for now] of the cops who mauled Frank Jude Jr. The protesters stood in Brennan’s courtroom, quietly but defiantly holding images of Jude’s battered face.
Former Acting Mayor Marvin Pratt, whose son was one of the four who copped a plea to the misdemeanor vandalism charges, said as much the day after the six month tire-slashing sentences were handed out by Judge Brennan. The judge had torn up the plea agreement under heavy pressure from Republicans to give stiff sentences to the four young Democratic Party activists who had agreed to the deal. The fifth defendent, who refused to plea bargain, was found not guilty.
“It isn’t funny — in the city of Milwaukee you can beat a man half to death and get exonerated, and here you’ve got four men who committed a property crime sentenced to jail,†Pratt said.
Joel McNally, in his column last week in the Shepherd Express, drew the same comparison, writing that: “Drunken white police officers who savagely beat and torture a black man may go free in Milwaukee, but young black men who commit acts of vandalism will go to jail.”
I’m not one to cry foul when the race is card is used, but I don’t think we’re doing the community any favors by mixing these two cases up. They are not the same case. They do not symbolize the same things about the city or about the criminal justice system. In fact, the tire-slashing case has very little to do with race — and everything to do with politics.
Is the political nature of the tire-slashing case & sentencing somehow unfair? No. Politics are at the core of the case, which involved Democratic Party activists — two of them the sons of two highly prominent African-American politicians, Pratt and Congresswoman Gwen Moore — poking holes in the tires of Republican Party vans. The plea was already in; all that was left was the sentencing, at the discretion of Brennan. Of course Republican talk radio screamed for blood. Brennan, a supporter of Republican candidates, gave them some. Six months is not a long time. Case closed.
The Frank Jude case, on the other hand, has serious implications for police community relations. I’m very surprised that black community leaders like Marvin Pratt and Tyrone Dumas, who works as a tech and trades school developer in MPS, are deflecting focus from the issue of police brutality by talking about a vandalism case.
This isn’t the first time black community leadership has done this in the Jude case. First, Ald. Michael McGee slurred gays in a Justice for Jude speech. A month later, the NAACP, in trying to bring attention to the slow Jude investigation, concluded that the justice system was racist because Mark Sostarich, Gary George‘s lawyer, got off with a lighter sentence in the OIC scandal. Sostarich, who is white, had cut a deal on his lesser charge to help convict George and Gee, who are black. It had nothing to do with race, however, and more to do with who did what crookery at OIC.
I know people want to holler about the Jude verdict. I know the criminal justice system has failed the black community, in this and other cases involving police wrongdoing, to say nothing of overall incarceration rates for young black males. Milwaukee has failed the black community.
But if we want to see some changes in police policy; if we really want to improve police-community relations in Milwaukeee; if we really want to get some citizen oversight of police wrongdoing; if we really want to see hiring and training reforms at MPD that could protect citizens from our protectors — we can’t holler in different directions. Black leadership has to help make sure we don’t lose sight of the Jude case, or of the problem of police brutality. The list of cases to talk about is a long, long list.
If community leaders — and media commentators like McNally– confuse the issue, we just give ammunition to those whites in Milwaukee who are all-too-ready to stick their heads in the sand when confronted by racism and justice.
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John-david Morgan
John-David Morgan, Watchdogging Criminal Justice
You are right, we can’t holler in different directions, otherwise we will lose sight of the potenital important role the Jude case could play to help turn Milwaukee around. But a boycott to spend ANYTHING for a day (scheduled for tomorrow)? I don’t see how that would be helping.
That kind of boycott affects everyone, not just police pay.
There has to be a better way to make a statement than this:
May 13, 2006
UNITY DAY BOYCOTT
Do not spend any money anywhere.
This was taken from the Justice for Jude site, which seems to be an attempt to make positive changes in MKE, yet I am not quite sure what to make of it. (McGee is thanked on the bottom of the home page, so …. )
http://justiceforjudejusticeforall.com/events.htm
Agreed. The boycott speaks to a horde of socio-economic issues for the black community, things that you can’t get at through a policy mauling. We’re going to lose sight of what we’re after — improved police-community relations, some hiring standards for police, and a citizens review board on police wrongdoing — if we don’t keep a strong focus.
I checked out the justice for jude site, looking for info on the petitions [which I just signed] that are going around asking the common council to set up a citizens review board. I could find nothing. In fact, it seems that there is a Civilian Review Authority that does review police beatings and offers advice on the site as to what a person should do after being abused by the police. This is not an official group, but something McGee and friends have set up so THEY can review cases.
We need something official, something the entire community can get behind and get involved with, not something independent … it almost sounds similar to McGee’s citizen patrols. The problem is that he and his dad have always been separitists … so — i don’t think we’re going to ever get a community-wide effort out of him to help turn Milwaukee around. On the contrary, McGee’s efforts will only ensure, as they have so far, that police-community relations in Milwaukee will not improve.
Everyone wants to scream RACIST! and POLICE BRUTALITY! Facts people: Jury’s must ALL believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the guilty party WERE THE ONES.. the state didn’t prove that. They ARE guilty of SOMETHING but the states chose the wrong fight. Now why isn’t Mcgee protesting the murderers and drug dealers that get off on life sentences due to a techicality? or when a jury finds them innocent? HOMICIDES and DRUGS ARE the major issues here in milwaukee.. It’s one thing to preach equality and another to hide behind the shadow of racism.
Wow….
this answer/response is exactly what Mr. Morgan was saying NOT to do — holler in different directions.
And regardless of what the fight, McGee is …. argh … if he wants to be the next MLK, Jr., he has to learn to think with his head and not with his ego.
And I, along with “everyone” still want to scream ‘POLICE BRUTALITY! ‘ How could you NOT?
I did hear back from Justice for Jude about the petitions. They’re delivering them to the mayor’s office, and say they’ve got 250 signatures … a start …Â Monday, a motorcade delivered a request to the US Attorney [Steve Biskupic] that he take up the prosecution.
To pick up on Deputy Insider’s points –Â I’ve never written that racism was at the core of the verdict. To suggest that a black jury convicts, or that a white jury convicts if they victim had been white, is insulting to everyone, and unfounded. At inquests, I’ve seen black jury members rule with the police many times; and I’ve seen black officers cleared by all-white panels.
This was a tough case because the code of silence made the evidence very shaky. McCann, I believe, took the case because he knew it was a bum case and that his office was going to take a lot of heat. And so he took the lead, rather than throw one of his top prosecutors under the Jude truck.
The beating of Jude, however, was a vicious, racially motivated attack. One of the questions early on was whether McCann was going to prosecute the case as a hate crime. As we look for answers, we have to also address race in Milwaukee — in the very least admit that it exists and is a problem in this city.Â
Do we end police brutality? No, I don’t think that’s possible.
We can, however, improve police-community relations by making some changes, letting the public review cases and by improving some hiring standards. I also think we can do this with the cooperation of the police, many of whom are likely ashamed by the officers who beat Frank Jude.
Maybe I should be more clear. The arriving cops were UNWARE of the totality of the circumstances at the Jude scene. Did THEY use excessive force? Absolutely. Did Jude, who is currently doing time for beating his mother, maybe add something to esculate the situation by his demeanor? Maybe. Is there a code of silence? Absolutely. Is that something that can ever be removed? Absolutely not.
If you don’t understand that apply to work for your local law enforcement agency. Go through the training, the stress and learn to back up your partner for your LIVES may one day depend on it. Miss a thousand holidays at home with the family and endless hours of overtime dealing with things you’d just wish would go away. Toil over how 2 children can just up and disappear and know you, although equipped with all types of tools, can’t find even a trace of evidence. Know that murderers and drug dealers are set free every day for the same reasons these cops were set free yet the public could care less, it’s not media worthy. Understandand believe that the only COLOR you see every day is the color of the uniform you and your partner wear. There is a side to this case that the public will NEVER know until you take that badge and place it upon your chest and watch the city you love turn against you simply because you wear that badge.
Was the Jude case racially motivated? Maybe, were you there when it started? Did the cops overreact? Yes, the pictures show that. Did the CITY overreact, yes, as proven by how the CITY dosen’t care that a rapist, murderer and drug dealer all get set free for the same reasons (Regarless of their color). This whole situation is WRONG, from when that party started through the city’s reaction. What is it going to take to make that change? If I knew that I’d be the Chief of Police or the Mayor.
Deputy Insider,
Excellent insight! I am not a member of law enforcement, and never went through training. I have, however, covered inquests for the Shepherd Express and other publications, and wrote extensively on police brutality in the 1990′s. The code existed then; it’s still in tact, obviously. It never bothered McCann until now. It never bothered the larger community – until now, the Jude case, and that’s where we start, regardless of how flawed Jude and his attackers are – how human they are really, reflections of Milwaukee in varying degrees.
Another note – I was not there, but muckraking can lead to some interesting dirt. I’ve got a pretty good picture of what happened that night. I’m examining how far I can go with it in publishing. I do know that we have to keep writing about this, if we care about Milwaukee and are serious about making changes.