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Subject: Perception Is Key In the Selection Of a Police Chief<BY DOROTHY GILLIAM=
Date: Sat, 14 Nov 92 11:48:46 EST
Message-ID: <17.1992Nov14.114846@AmeriCast.com>

Perception Is Key In the Selection Of a Police Chief<BY DOROTHY
GILLIAM= With five of the seven finalists for D.C. police chief
African American, the odds are good that the next chief will be
black. But the race of a new chief has spurred some debate.

Citizens and activists have talked about it on radio talk shows
and reporters have received calls and letters from police and
others expressing resentment of what they claim is a shutout of
white finalists.

Some of these opposing viewpoints were expressed to reporter
Keith A. Harriston, who has been reporting on the police chief
search:

"With the start of home rule, there was a need for political
leaders to place blacks in visible positions in government. Even-
tually, you mature and get beyond that," said Gary Hankins,
president of the D.C. Fraternal Order of Police.  "We fought too
long to go back," said Calvin W. Rolark, publisher of the Wash-
ington Informer and president of the United Black Fund, who first
lobbied city officials to appoint a black police chief 18 years
ago. "It was correct then, and it still is the right thing for
the city."

Some of the city's elected officials were reluctant to talk pub-
licly about the subject, but most of those who did, including
City Administrator Robert L. Mallett, said race would not be a
factor.

A retired white D.C. police official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, observed, "There is nothing magic about having a black
chief, and it won't bring anything to the table except percep-
tion."

But "perception" and community relations are important functions
of the chief of police.

"There is a certain calming effect among those who view Chief
Fulwood as coming from them," said Alvin Thornton, a political
science professor at Howard University.

Last May, in the aftermath of the Los Angeles civil disturbances,
a group of demonstrators - mostly black college students -
stopped traffic during rush hour on the 14th Street bridge. The
crowd dispersed after Fulwood walked right into the middle of the
angry demonstrators, whose principal targets were police off-
icers.

"Would a white police chief have been able to do that?" Thornton
asked rhetorically. "I don't think so."

In Detroit recently, Malice Green, an unarmed black motorist, was
beaten to death by several white policemen - an encounter fright-
eningly similar to the beating of Rodney G. King. While predom-
inantly black Detroit is outraged and bitter, the city didn't
blow up as Los Angeles did.

Police response was a key reason.

In Los Angeles, white Police Chief Daryl F. Gates defended the
officers; Detroit's black police chief, Stanley Knox, quickly
condemned the fatal beating and suspended the seven officers at
the scene, one of whom was black.

Inequality based on race is a fact of life in the U.S.  criminal
justice system. Statistics show the war on drugs is skewed toward
arresting and imprisoning blacks and Latinos.

Each month, thousands of Americans are arrested on drug charges,
and a disproportionate number are minorities.

Federal studies show whites constitute 80 percent of the
country's drug users. Blacks make up 12 percent of the nation's
population, but they accounted for 41 percent of all drug arrests
in 1991.

Those who sell drugs on the street are swept up and arrested in
alarming numbers, while those who import the drugs and launder
the money remain relatively untouched.  Virtually every African
American knows these facts, which is why a white police chief
would come with baggage, be suspect even. By contrast, there's a
perception that an African American police chief would be fair -
a crucial consideration in a city that is nearly 70 percent
black.

That is not to say that the law is always equally applied here.
But for those in the African American community here - where
research indicated 70 percent of the young men can expect to be
arrested and jailed at least once before reaching age 35 - the
perception that the police chief is "one of ours" is critical in
building strong community relations.

In light of historical and contemporary factors, a white police
chief would have to spend a lot of energy putting black fears to
rest, and proving himself or herself to a skeptical and wounded
black community.

All this, of course, assumes that all else is equal. I have not
heard a single voice asking for appointment for a black person
simply because he or she is black.

Much of what a police chief can accomplish is based on the
respect and trust of the community. The issue is not the city's
maturity or lack of it, or its dedication to fairness.

Rather, it is the decades of discrimination in the administration
of justice in this city and country, which has left the majority
of the District's population without the same degree of trust in
a white police chief as in a black one. 11:09 11-14C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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