The Ugly—Racism and Rancor In America

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The Ugly—Racism and Rancor in America

by Bill Formby

The current struggle over the allegations against Judge Kavanaugh reminds me of [many years ago] when working as a police officer, I began to lose respect for a lot of my comrades. Before anyone jumps on me let me say that overall I like police officers and have many friends who are current or former law enforcement personnel. For the most part, they are honest, good, hard-working people who are doing a really tough, thankless job. Also, when I was an officer it was fifty years ago and things have largely changed, but not completely. But, back to my story.

I was working the day shift as a rookie and we received a call to see a woman at a service station on the South part of town. When we arrived we were directed to a young white woman who, under better circumstances was an attractive, young woman about 20 or 21 years of age. She told us that she had been offered a ride from the Citizen’s Club, normally considered a black nightclub but occasionally frequently visited by University of Alabama students because of their music. The two black males, instead of driving her home, had taken her to a mostly an out of the way area and raped her. She was perfectly willing to give us information so I continued to interview her and she gave me a good description of both men, their vehicle, and a partial tag number. My partner called for the detectives.

A little later two detectives showed, their names I will not mention, but the lead investigator over time became one of my major antagonists in my dealing with law enforcement agencies. He was a large man who had an air of “how dare you bother me with this” attitude about him. I gave him a copy of my notes and asked him if he wanted us to stand by to transport her to the hospital to be examined. He looked at me and smirked, “Hell no. If she was down there hanging out with that damned n****** she deserved anything they did to her.”

I don’t know if I was more shocked or angry. “Detective, are you sure you don’t want me to not render services to this lady?” I asked. He chuckled, “Who said she was a lady.”

I called him by name, “…do you know this young woman?” “Shit no”, he said. “But where she said she was, and the people she around told you everything you need to know.” At that point, I called him a sorry son of a bitch and walked off and got in my car and left. My partner who was much older than me started telling me that I should not talk that way to a detective because they were equal to sergeants. I pulled the car over and told him that he could walk if he wanted to, and he could write me up if he wanted to but what I just saw was probably the sorriest behavior I have ever seen from anyone toward an alleged victim.

When I got to headquarters I wrote my report, word for word, exactly as it happened and put it in the Captains IN basket. I then went back on patrol. About 30 minutes later I got a call to headquarters to see the captain. I walked in and he started asking me what happened. I pointed to the report and told him everything was in there. “Yeah, he told me, you will have to redo this report.” I looked at him and said in a very measured voice, “like hell I will. It is an incident report that gives a factual account of everything that happened regarding that particular call.” He then told me that the chief had read it and said that I had to rewrite it and leave out the part about the detective. I said to tell the chief to rewrite himself but I will never sign it.

The next thing, as one might guess, I am in the chief’s office with him telling me to rewrite the report or I am fired. I tried to look in straight in the eye, it was hard because one of his eyes just seemed to roll around all the time so I focused on his good eye. I said, “Fine chief, here is my request for a full civil service board hearing which I am entitled to have, and my next stop will be my attorney’s office, and if he approves I will be going to the Tuscaloosa News.” I was told to get the hell out of his office. That report never saw the light of day.

This was not an isolated incident. Generally speaking, it was like living in the stone age. Racism and misogynistic behavior were common among not only the police officers but among white males in general, and from what I could see the black males did not act any differently than the white males. I really don’t understand what it will take to convince men that we are not living in caves any longer nor are we living in tribes or clans.

My references to police really refer not to specific people but to a culture that is similar to what we are seeing with the political parties, and especially the Republicans, today. It seems that regardless of what another member of their culture or tribe is doing, right, wrong, or indifferent, they will support them. I do not know whether Judge Kavanaugh attempted to rape Dr. Ford or not. I do not know if Clarence Thomas sexually harassed Anita Hill or not. I do not know if Donald Trump conspired with the Russians or not. But, if they did not do any of those things why are they so afraid to have the incidents investigated to try to gather some facts on which to draw a conclusion.

I will always believe that Clarence Thomas is a sorry piece of crap because I believe he did sexually harass Anita Hill. Why do I believe it? Because the damned Republicans had made their minds up that they were going to approve him regardless of the hearings. They were going to stick by their tribesman no matter what. Just as the chief stuck by his detective. Just as, in a recent case in Selma, Alabama a detective perjured himself about having a tape recording from a camera that would have recorded a murder that took place. He said in the preliminary hearing he had turned the taped over to an agent of the ATF for enhancement. When we did not get the tape in discovery I called a former student who was the SAC in Birmingham, Alabama to help me find that agent. I found him and found, to no surprise, the detective had not given him anything.

I went back to the owner of the premises with a court order and seized the entire camera system only to find out the detective never even asked for the tape and even though the camera did cover the alleged murder scene it had been recorded over. Of course, the DA did not say anything to the detective and the police department promoted him. Instead of capital murder, the DA offered the client manslaughter and 4 years already served in jail and unsupervised probation if he would take a plea. He took the plea since the police had also tampered with the evidence and royally screwed up the investigation. But then, there was a captain there also. He told me that the 32-year-old BOY with a spotless criminal record pleaded guilty so he must be.

I will end this by saying that after watching this process playing out in the Trump presidency, as well as reading comments from officers on Facebook pages from around the country, and watching the behavior of people who asked for votes to make this country better, I feel like a stupid old man. I served four years in the Marines believing that this country and its people were worth killing or possibly dying for, but I believe now I was wrong. There are good people that live here and they are being run over like a Mack truck hitting a bunch of turkeys in the middle of an interstate. When its all over there will be nothing left but teeth, hair, and eyeballs everywhere and left behind with that gore will be the shambles of another country that once had the potential to be great but gave in to the rich and the political elites.

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About Post Author

Bill Formby

Bill Formby, aka William A. Formby, PhD, aka Lazersedge is a former Marine and a former police officer. He is a retired University Educator who considers himself a moderate pragmatic progressive liberal, meaning that he thinks practically liberal, acts practically liberal, and he is not going to change in the near future. But, if he does he will be sure to let you know.
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Glenn R. Geist
5 years ago

Such things as this need to be discussed and expanded upon. It’s not a simple story with few factors, but America is losing its tolerance for racism and misogyny and that may be an understatement. Bucking such long term changes and longing for a “great again” level of jim Crow, Judge Lynch and Boss Hogg is the heart of the Right.

Those things are common enough in many parts of life in our country and I have to believe that our road to redemption includes people who will stand up against hate and corruption on an individual basis. I believe it is changing, even if it seems too slow for those who suffer from it, and to me – but it’s changing.

Bill Formby
Reply to  Glenn R. Geist
5 years ago

I agree Glenn. It is well past time that each person be judged on their own merits and enough of this lumping people in to categories because of the color of their skin, their religion, place of origin, place of work, or any thing else. It does not mean you have to be in love with everyone else but you need not judge them either.

Admin
5 years ago

Things were very, very different back in the day, as they say, and I’m pleased to observe that, as a young police officer, I never fell into any of those hate traps. I also remained in law enforcement for my entire adult life, minus three years in the army. Of course, I saw a few cops doing things they should not be doing, because they are people after all, and people do inappropriate things from time to time. It doesn’t mean that all 975K plus police officers are racist pigs. On the contrary, for every act of racism, I must have seen 10 good things cops did, including putting themselves in danger. Again, what happened in the ’60’s and early ’70’s happened during a different time in America, and much has changed, for the better, since those tumultuous decades.

Bill Formby
Reply to  Professor Mike
5 years ago

I don’t disagree with you Mike. As I said, the vast majority are good people. But at some point I think it comes dome to ending the tribalism. What is the saying? Something about for bad guys to succeed they just need good the good ones to keep their mouths shut, or turn their head, something like that. That’s sort of the problem we have with Trump. He can get away with anything as long as his tribe (the Republicans) keep supporting him. Yeah, something like that.

Carol Maietta
5 years ago

I’m sure these things happened everywhere, and still do. But I also believe that the tides are turning and if enough humans with hope and compassion speak up, we can make a difference one person, one incident, and one vote st a time. Never give up! Keep telling your “story”.

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