If today's Inquirer story about last night's meeting between Michael Nutter and the Guardian Civic League is any indication, governing may prove to be a lot more difficult than Nutter's current campaign experience (and possibly more difficult than his primary campaign experience):
He was handed a thick report that alleged racist practices within the police force and contained recommendations for addressing the problem that the league said were compiled several years ago.
"I'm not going to tolerate discrimination . . . in any department within city government," Nutter said.
Nutter made a point of saying he had not appointed any of those serving in major positions in the city government. He stopped short of saying that he planned to replace Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson, but noted: "Last year was last year. When you come to training camp next year, you're going to have to fight for your job."
An officer called out, "It's going to be a black and white issue."
"It's a black and white world," Nutter said.
First of all, I don't know why he's dancing around the Sylvester Johnson issue or why anyone in the Guardian Civic League thinks that Sylvester Johnson could possibly continue as commissioner after Nutter gets sworn in. Johnson has already been pretty candid about his plans to retire. He's even been talking about how he plans on keeping active in the community after he's out of uniform.
Nutter's metaphor is a little off in this case since he's basically saying that Donovan McNabb, after he announces his retirement, will have to fight for his job in training camp the next year.
I'm also confused about what the one officer meant by "a black and white issue." It seems to refer to the choice of the next police commissioner. Will Nutter's hand be forced such that the first thing he has to consider when choosing the next police commissioner is the color of that person's skin? What if, after an exhaustive search both internally and externally, Nutter and his team of advisers determine their best candidate for the job and he or she happens to be white? This is an extremely difficult post to write because I understand why it's important, in a city that his predominantly black and in a city where a large part of the black population continues to struggle, for persons of color to be in charge of parts of the government that need to be especially sensitive to that community.
Perhaps if the search for the next police commissioner includes constant dialogue and input from groups like the Guardian Civic League, neighborhood groups, the NAACP, the FOP, police advisory panels and such, they can all reach a consensus choice who happens also to be best person for the job.
What's more disturbing are these continued references to racist practices within the police department. I don't know what they're referring to and I'd love to get a look at the report that they handed to Nutter. They could be cases of high-ranking officers of one race treating subordinates of a different race differently than subordinates of their own race or peers harrassing peers of a different race. If some cops can't look at each other without seeing skin color, what hopes do we have that they'll be able to be fair and equitable in their treatment of the citizens whom they're supposed to be policing. This is especially true when we're talking about a city in which a vast majority of the most violent crimes are happening in neighborhoods that are predominantly populated by persons of color.
Otherwise, Nutter seems to be saying the right things about several other issues - including the training necessary to enact the stop-and-frisk plan successfully and confronting municipal judges (who, he correctly points out, are paid by the city despite PA Supreme Court rulings that say they are to be paid for by the state) about lenient sentences.
I wish there had been more reaction quotes by the officers in this story to get an idea of how they responded to his answers and whether they think his ideas will work. I'll guess we'll get plenty of that soon enough when those ideas are put into policy.
If anyone is familiar with some the internal workings of the police department... the stuff that the public doesn't know... feel free to comment.
Comments (5)
Actually, you and Michael Nutter are wrong. Judges are paid by the Commonwealth as they are State Elected Officials, hence the recent debate about judicial pay raises. Each Judge in Philadelphia received the pay raise offered by STATE legislation and signed by the governor of the STATE. The City government, especially during the public outcry over the pay raises, if you and Michael Nutter are correct could have stopped it before it happened.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly said that the First Judicial District, the body which assists the judges with the administration of justice,is a state responsibility but is paid for with city dollars. The Judges are not on City payroll but everyone else in the First Judicial District is.
Posted by Charles Gibbs | September 27, 2007 7:17 PM
I see really iffy caucasian officers who have dads who gave money to local city council people who have their jobs after doing some really really crazy things, like assaulting a senior officer or collegues.
But I see all the black officers I've had cause to work with as the best. I wonder if it's just that they have to be.
Why can't you get rid of bad officers? Whatever color.
Where there is a newbies coming in who weren't vetted properly, and they get into bad things fast, that's always going to harm perception.
Sylvester presided over a time in the force where bad eggs were hired and got caught doing some very out there things. Plus, Sylvester is a member of a religious organization that many old timers remember arresting many members of.
Even the Chicago leadership criticized Jeremiah Shebazz for having criminal assocations in Temple 12, and Germantown Avenue's masjid was the HQ of some of the black organized crime syndicate's toughest meanest enforcers.
Now you have a mayor who took money from a drug extortion imam, and a mayor who's his pal, and police captain who had strong ties to that local muslim movement.
So yeah, people are scared to speak up, scared for their careers to say anything, no matter how true, that the people dealing the drugs and laundering the money are close to the top of the city's black elite.
Jim Nicholson wrote about the black mafia, and had to wear a bulletproof jacket. Any officer, no matter what ethnicity, knows that they can get info that only the FBI should see, if they do their jobs right.
As a civilian I see the "activists" who are getting money and property not doing a thing and allowing that property to be open air drug markets.
It doesn't take a true genius.
Posted by Anonymous | September 28, 2007 3:06 PM
Oh, but the papers can be relied upon to fete these "activists" without ever doing a background check, not looking at who they worked for, never getting out to where the city has given out property to see what's being done, and using shoe leather to see that in fact a row of vacant lots makes a nice open air drug market that the police drive right past.
Posted by Anonymous | September 28, 2007 3:09 PM
Oh, we might get picketed by the muslims. Oh, oh, let's not write anything critical.
Sylvester Johnson's religion is germaine, because that movement is also political, and full of criminals that may or may not be reformed.
Johnson's local religious membership allies him with an organization that was the host to some of the most violent criminals in Philadelphia.
I'm amazed that this is so uninteresting to the press.
Posted by Anonymous | September 28, 2007 3:14 PM
Municipal court judges are paid by the city, Common pleas court judges are paid by the state, they both work inside the city.
Posted by Anonymous | September 30, 2007 12:04 PM