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I recently attended a celebration in honor of the
birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. It ended, as many such celebrations do,
with the audience members linking arms and singing that hopeful anthem,
“We Shall Overcome.”
I’ve belted this tune a million times. But on
this occasion, my mouth simply wouldn’t make the words, especially
the part where the lyrics say, Deep in my
heart, I do believe, that we shall overcome (or live in peace, or walk hand in hand, whatever the verse may be). I
mean, I had just sat through a week of the Black Guardians trial, and, even
worse, read the “readers’ comments” section on the State Journal-Register’s
Web site. Overcome? We shall for sure? Who do you think you’re kidding? I’m not talking about the verdicts (one win for
outspoken Shaft-wannabe Rickey Davis, all other counts in favor of the
city). Despite the neat symmetry depicted in trials on TV, I don’t
believe a verdict necessarily proves anything, one way or the other.
I’ve spent too much of my life riding courtroom pews to fall for the
fantasy that justice prevails. In many cases, the verdict is more a
reflection of the skill of the attorneys, the pizzazz of the witnesses, and
the weekend plans of the people sitting in the jury box. Race cases are
especially difficult. As the plaintiffs’ attorney, Shari Rhode, told
me: “It’s like trying to prove the moon is yellow.”
Sometimes it’s really obvious, other times it depends on where you
happen to be standing. No, the thing that really bugs me didn’t
actually materialize in the trial. It was a list of witnesses and exhibits
city attorneys submitted in case they wanted to argue to the jury that
Renatta Frazier never should have been a cop. If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard
that statement — never a question or an opinion, mind you, always a
declarative certainty (à la “We Shall Overcome”) —
I could have retired to the south of France already. Sure, maybe that was
the professional opinion of the experts at Illinois State Police. But guess
what? Frazier wasn’t the first Springfield Police recruit the ISP
academy declined to endorse, nor was she the last. The others just happened
to be white men. But I’m not even suggesting that’s some
kind of racist conspiracy. The reason this rumor gets circulated about
Frazier and not the allegedly incompetent white guys is because Frazier
stuck out like a sore thumb, in no small measure due to her status as only
the third black woman ever hired in the history of SPD. What I want to know is: Did this supposed deficit on
her part justify what was done to her? I don’t have to rehash the story; if you read
this paper, you already know. Basically, the administration of the
Springfield Police Department misled the media, the public, and most of all
Frazier herself into believing that she somehow failed to protect a teenage
girl from getting raped by two men — an accusation that turned out to
be utterly false. Who deserves this kind of slander? What was so bad
about Frazier that she needed to be tortured by this enormous sense of
guilt? And why hasn’t anybody officially apologized to her? Sure, a few heads rolled when the truth came out. A
couple of senior police officers had to retire. Then-Chief John Harris
disappeared, along with then-Mayor Karen Hasara and then-assistant city
attorney Bill Workman. No one ever pretended these departures were penance
for the travesty committed against Frazier. In fact, Hasara left office to
“spend more time with her husband,” Harris left because the new
mayor wanted to hire his own police chief, and Workman was sent packing for
being a Republican in a Democratic administration. The new city officials, who had nothing to do with
the Frazier scandal, eventually and reluctantly made a settlement deal with
Frazier for $650,000. But let’s face it: That was more like hush
money than anything resembling remorse. The SJ-R, which promoted the fib in the first place, also never
apologized to Frazier. In fact, in articles documenting the recent BGA
trial, the SJ-R describes
the Frazier scandal as SPD’s failure to correct “a
story,” as though the yarn was published once, maybe on page 33. It
actually appeared in the daily paper 19 times before the truth was
uncovered by this tiny rag. Don’t misunderstand: It’s not that
Frazier wants or needs an apology. She has the comfort of right on her
side. No, the true beneficiary of an apology is often the one who gives it.
A heartfelt apology has a way of cleansing the soul. Since the Frazier fiasco of 2002, SPD’s
250-badge force has managed to hire only one black female officer. She
arrived with none of the qualification issues that haunted Frazier, yet she
found the department so unwelcoming that she quit [see “Opt
out,” Nov 8, 2007].
Isn’t the first step in solving a problem
admitting that you have one? No city official at the BGA trial seemed to
think so.
Contact Dusty Rhodes at drhodes@illinoistimes.com
This article appears in Jan 17-23, 2008.
