Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 December 2003 — Page 9

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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2003

THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

PAGE A9

Death by police in Cincinnati

By JESSE L. JACKSON SR. NNPA On the Thanksgiving u n ■SfcwdMW Nath a n i e 1 Jones, a Black from a police beating in 'Be 1 Cincinnati; his death was ruled a homicide by the coroner. The official response seems almost scripted. The police chief defends his men. The union president says that the police, caught on tape repeatedly beating the victim with their aluminum nightsticks, “exercised restraint.” The mayor defends the police chief. The coroner rules that the victim had drugs in his system. But this is Cincinnati. The victim was the 18th Black man to die in custody of the police since 1995. In the same period, only one white man has died. Only two years ago, Cincinnati was shaken by riots caused by a white policeman shooting an unarmed Black teen-agerwho was running away. Try to imagine what would happen if a white man died after being beaten on tape by Black police officers, after 17other white men had died in custody of a largely Black police force. The governor would step in. The Justice Department would act. The national press would descend. The police have released a videotape tape that shows an angry Jones, a 350-pound man, lunging and taking a swing at a policeman. That tape answers all questions for many in Cincinnati. “I wouldn’t say he got what he deserved,” said one anonymous caller on a radio call in show, “but he got what he started.” But for those who knew Nathaniel Jones, it doesn’t make sense. Jones was known as a gentle man, a church-goer, attentive to his teen-ager sons who lived in Cleveland. He had just

returned from Cleveland early on a Sunday morning. He went to a White Castle, where he was a regular, to meet with two waitresses who were his friends. He was not a threat to them. He was not armed, and not hostile. Due to drugs or fatigue or illness, he started acting funny, dancing and jumping around. He went outside and passed out. The restaurant called for emergency medical assistance. By the time the paramedics arrived, Jones had been revived. The paramedics thought Jones was acting erratically and called the police. Police arrived, the camera running in the cruiser. But in the tape that police released, there is a one minute and 37-second gap. Something happened in that gap to turn a jovial gentle man into an angry one, willing to take a swing at an officer. Police claim that the camera was turned off because they were certain that everything was under control and then turned on again when it went out of control. Given Cincinnati’s history, it would take a heroic act of faith for the African-American community to believe that. More telling, the paramedics left the scene when the police arrived. That probably caused Jones his life, since they were not there to deliver CPR or render other assistance, and the police left him lying on his face, his hands handcuffed behind his back for crucial minutes without moving to help. Did the firefighters leave because they didn’t want to witness the beating that started to take place? Jones’ aunt and his grandmother object strongly to the way the media has portrayed Nathaniel Jones. He was “never violent,” says his grandmother. He was a “loving man,” says his aunt. They want to know what provocation made him so angry. They wantan investigation and justice. But they have also called on Cincinnati to learn to live together, and called on the African-

American community to stay calm. The city’s ministers cancelled a planned protest march to honor the spirit of their concerns. Surely, the relatives of the victim should not be the only responsible people in the city. For African Americans, police brutality is still too widespread. Justice is still too scarce. The police who beat Rodney King in Los Angeles walk free. The police who shot Amadou Diallo in New York walk free. The policeman who shot Timothy Thomas in Cincinnati walked free. Eighteen Blacks killed while in custody of pol ice in Cincinnati. A minute and 37-sec-ond gap on the police tape - a gap at the very moment of provocation. Mayor Charlie Luken has responded with a public relations campaign, urging the media to play the tape jumping in defense of his city. He seems oblivious to the fears of the Black community. “We’ve gone through a culture change in Cincinnati,” he says. “We still have a problem in Cincinnati,” says Juleana Frierson, staff director of a leading civil rights group, “We need a cultural change in the police department. These policemen are still allowed to kill.” The gulf between those statements speaks for itself. It is time for the Justice Department and the governor and the mayor and the police chief to exhibit the same kind of concern for the city as Nathaniel Jones’ grandmother and aunt have shown. It is time for them to act to bring the city together. The way to do that is not to wage a public relations campaign, but to wage a campaign for justice and accountability for the citizens of Cincinnati. After the riots two years ago, Cincinnati started down the path of reform. But clearly it has a long way yet to go. Jesse L. Jackson Sr. is founder and president of the Chicagobased Rainbow/Push Coalition.

YOUR VOICE What do you think about the late segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond reportedly having fathered an African-American girl after years of campaigning for separation of races?

Joyce Samuels “I think he was a hypocrite. I saw his child on television and she looks just like him. 1 thank God for her coming forward.” Joyce Samuels

Jesse Lynch

“I have mixed emotions. I felt like it was disclosed because people would think that she had a financial interest. But as an African American, 1 cannot see how she sat on that for so long." Jesse Lynch

Barbara Bundrant

“It is sad because he was a segregationist. People do not support or stick to what they campaign and believe.” Barbara Bundrant

READERS RESPOND

Let stem cell research go forward At his press conference on Dec. 15, President Bush said, “God’s gift to the world is freedom.” This is my response to the president. Mr.President, please allow our scientists the freedom to develop “cures” for millions of people who are suffering from chronic illnesses. Allow and

support “somatic cell nuclear transfer” or therapeutic stem cell research to proceed unfettered. Put aside your personal religious views as well as the religious views of others and grant our scientists who see so much potential in therapeutic stem cell research, the freedom to do what they do best, doing research for cures. Fifty years from now, history will look back and agree that your total support was the right decision. Harold D. Adams

Howard Dean, Al Gore and Blacks

By RON WALTERS heightening American insecurity the general election. NNPA in the process. The betting by his detractors is

Most important, it also signals that Dean will look too liberal to Al Gore’s a change from the Clinton strat- the rest of the country in the gen-

recent en- egy of talking like a Republican eral election. Dean is no dummydorsement of while walking like a Democrat, he is just smart enough to give Howard For my money, I would rather them what they want in the genDean for the stand for something rather than eral election and that raises the Democratic to be following either Richard question of how far will he go in presidential Gephardt or Joe Lieberman into backing away from Blacks and nomination thefogofsupportingBushonthe the rest ofhis core constituency, underscores a war and then criticizing his tax Sharpton needs to stay in the titanic policies. If they support the war, game because he can help put the struggle how would they pay for it? brakes on any sharp swing to the within the Democratic Party that Seems to me they would have center-right, especially if he has places considerable pressure on to run the same budget deficits the delegates to support him. the Black community. that Bush is running and dry up Sharpton - and other Black leadWhat is now forming is a’’two- funding for social programs. ers need to be poised make sure camp” struggle with the Bill So, the Gore endorsement was Dean doesn’t turn his back on us. Clinton operatives rallying very big because it moved the ball This is important because we around retired ArmyGen. Wesley toward the goal post for Dean and still don’t know fully how Dean Clark and the Gore faction sup- caused the entire Democratic would configure racial issues. He porting Howard Dean. The pres- team to consider more seriously gave a speech on “’race relations” sure of two opposite camps takes his emergence as the clear leader in South Carolina, two days bemuch of the emphasis away from of the pack. Congressional Black fore the Gore endorsement, and the other candidates and begins Caucus Chair Elijah Cummings his primary message* was similar to make this appear to be a two- is said to be supporting Dean. If to what he had been saying all person race. that’s true, the Black community' along. And that is: Blacks and The fact that Gore announced will be split. The Black split, how- whites have a common interest in his support for Dean in Harlerii ever, will not be between Clark voting together to support not was also important. Not only is it and Dean, but between Al only justice, but class-oriented the backyard of Congressman Sharpton and Dean. Each say they issues of more jobs, education, Charles Rangel and now includes want to change the direction of opportunities for small busitheturfofBill and Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party, which nesses, rebuilding rural eoiqmuGore was sending a clear mes- seems to be where the Black vote nities and the like, sage: the Democratic Party must wants to go in this election cycle. But w'hat about rebuilding the change direction. Should Sharpton pull out? Ab- inner cities? There was no tarGore came aboard Dean’s train solutely not. I think that although geted strategy in Dean’s message because the former Vermont gov- Dean looks very left to many people, directed to Black urban voters, ernor had the courage to directly actually he is not far left and it is The pressure on Black voters oppose George Bush on America’s possible that he could adopt a far and their leadership is always that invasion of Iraq. Dean criticizes more compromising stance on is- they give in to a logic that says: Bush for continuing to pursue a sues important to Blacks. Candi- "the other guy is so bad that any war that is wasting billions of dates tend to play to their core Democrat would be better, so I’m American tax dollars, making constituencies in the primaries and going with whomever wins the many more enemies and thus, then to the rest of the country in nomination. And if I try to de-

mand anything from him, it will be seen as a problem and a barrier to his election. So I better keep quiet and put my demands back in my pocket and just hope and trust that he will do right." That’s why Sharpton and the rest of us need to keep our footing as the real battle for the nominee of the Democratic Party heats up. Ron Walters is the Distinguished Leadership Scholar, director of the African American lA'adership Institute in the Academy of Leadership and professor of government and polities at the University of Man land-College

Park.

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Or Strom Thurmond and me

By EARL OFARI HUTCHINSON The ■ eton that rattled in the late South laP s | Carolina Sen. S t r o m V m Thurmond’s //J closet with the revelation that he may have fathered a Black child also rattled for me. If Essie Mae WashingtonWilliams is indeed his daughter, and she claims to have documents, and has offered to take DNA tests to prove it, then my two granddaughters who are her great granddaughters are Thurmond's great-great granddaughters. That raises troubling concerns for me. The girls are 8 and 2 years old, and 1 don’t want them exposed to the public rancor and bitterness that has raged between the Black and white descendants ofThomas Jefferson. That type of public mistiness could confuse, distract, and embitter them. But they need to know the truth about their heritage. It’s well known or strongly suspected that a slew of prominent, wealthy, and politically connected Southern slave masters. and that almost certainly included Jefferson, kept Black mistresses, fathered Black children. and even supported them. The sexual hijinks between men who were wealthy, and prominent and regarded as pillars of Southern society anil Black women didn’t end with slavery. Some of them voluntarily contributed to their children's upkeep. It appears that Thurmond dutifully gave financial support to Washing-ton-Williams. But many others didn't. In the decades after t he Civil War. Blaek women made countless legal claims against these men for financial and child support for their racially mixed illegiti mate children. When the story broke na-

tionally about Thurmond, and his possible relationship to my granddaughters, my oldest granddaughter asked me about him. Segregation, states rights, and conservatism, the things that Thurmond mightily championed, are alien concepts to her, and 1 told her simply that he was an important. Southern senator. But she deserves to know the full truth about her presumed great-great grandfather’s political legacy. When she’s old enough I’ll tell her that Thurmond did more than any other Southern politician to resuscitate a moribund Republican Party in the South and transform it into a dominant conservative force in national politics. Thurmond’s one-man crusade for states rights and against federal intrusion in the South’s racial business stoked white fury against the national Democrats in the 19(>0s. In the eyes of many white Southerners, the Democratic Party became the hated symbol of integration and civil rights. The big break came with Republican Barry Goldwater’s presidential bid in 19<> t. Thurmond adroitly read the political tea leaves, stumped for Goldwater, and urged Southern Democrats to do the same. In the process, he dropped the racially inflammatory rhetoric that bad long been his and other Southern politicians stock in trade. Instead, he, and Goldwater. railed against welfare, crime in the streets, permissiveness, and big government, tie branded the Democrats the party of "regulation." “control,” "coercion," "intimidation," and "subservience." This was racial code speak but it worked. It ignited the first big stampede of Southern whites from the Democratic Party into the Republican Party. The stampede got even bigger in IJMiS. President Nixon.with Of Strom's endorsement and active support, crafted his “Southern Strategy," that is woo white voters, while saying and doing as little as possible about ci\ il rights. That strategy became the indispensable cornerstone of Republican polities

in the South. In the years to come, Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan, and the elder Bush also made masterful use of Nixon’s Southern Strategy to win elections and tighten the Republican grip on the South. But President Bush also has greatly benefited from the Southern Strategy. In the 2000 presidential election, he bagged the electoral votes of all the states of the Old Confederacy. Without the granite like backing of these states, Democratic presidential contender Al Gore would have easily won the White House, and the Florida vote debacle would have been a meaningless sideshow. Bush will benefit again in the 2004 election from Thurmond’s radical remake ofthe Republican Party in the South, White males by whopping margins still favor Bush over any of the Democratic presidential challengers, and that includes North Carolina Sen. John Edwards. Despite much talk that Thurmond did a racial mea culpa in the latter days of his political reign, he still remained a die-hard conservative. His voting record was pro-defense, anti-govern-ment social programs, and he remained a hard-line conservative. In his final campaign for his eighth Senate term in 199b. he ranted against the “the 40-year wrongs of liberalism." Thurmond helped ensure that the Republicans would be major players for decades to come in national polities. Bush and the Republicans owe Of Strom an eternal debt of gratitude. That’s not thedebt that my granddaughters owe their presumed greatgreat grandfather. However, when they’re old enough to understand I’ll talk candidly with them about the racially indelible political stamp that he put on the nation. Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is the author of flic Crisis in Black and Black (Middle Passage Pn'ss). E-mail him at: Ehutchili t aol.cotn.