A community meeting last night at an east Greensboro meeting found a core group of activists struggling to maintain momentum in a campaign framed as a challenge to the Greensboro Police Department to improve professionalism and accountability.
The Rev. Clarence Shuford, who is president of the Pulpit Forum and who presided over the meeting, struggled to impart a sense of common purpose and solidarity.
“If we live in a community where people are being mistreated, it’s a possibility that we may one day be mistreated,” he said, adding later: “If our police officers are being subjected to injustice, what hope is there for us citizens?”
Among the 30 so participants in the sanctuary at Bethel AMEZ Church, most were familiar faces in the unique coalition that has formed around the cause: two former police officers, a street organization leader and members of his group who have been under withering pressure from the police department over the past three years, white Episcopal clergymen, African-American pastors, college students and young social justice staffers.
Several months after the purging of three black officers who have accused the department of discrimination and the installation of new chief, the campaign for reform has hit a low ebb and the personnel drama that attended the firings has faded from public consciousness for the most part. The campaign has hit a holding pattern of sorts.
The North Carolina Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation, or Latin Kings, has filed a Title VI discrimination complaint against the Greensboro Police Department with the assistance of a Durham-based social justice organization led by a former US Justice Department assistant attorney general.
The Beloved Community Center has processed several citizen discrimination complaints against the department that have been submitted to the Justice Department, along with the initial complaint filed by the Latin Kings. Joyce Johnson of the Beloved Community Center said she has been in frequent communication with representatives of the federal agency, but the Justice Department has yet to formally respond.
Two NC A&T University students have filed a complaint against the Greensboro Police Department contending they were subjected to an unwarranted traffic stop and unlawful detention. It is unclear what progress, if any, the police department has made in investigating the students’ complaint.
Former police Capt. Charles Cherry, one of those terminated, has worked closely with the Beloved Community Center, has advised citizens including the A&T students about redressing complaints, and has also continued to promote grievances by Officer Deborah Thomas, who is currently employed by the department. Thomas’ has enlisted the Rev. Nelson Johnson of the Beloved Community Center as her spiritual counselor under the provisions of the department’s employee assistance program, and contentious meetings between the officer and her supervisor have made their way onto YouTube.
Much of last night’s meeting was devoted to reviewing the events of the past year – testament to either ineffective or hostile media accounts that have failed to generate significant sympathy with the embattled and fired police officers, much less the citizens who have alleged civil rights abuses.
Nelson Johnson described the situation in the police department as “a subculture, that is a way of life inside of the department, that abuses its power and uses double standards.” Considering how many of those present had attended previous meetings it was striking that the pastor assumed his audiences lack of familiarity with the facts of the various cases in his remarks.
“You may have heard that quite a bit, but you have no real way of knowing whether that’s true or not unless your trust level of us is up,” he said. “And given some of the battering that we’ve gotten, I can understand if it is not. And so, tonight, we wanted to take some time to walk somewhat slowly through some of the history of these cases so that you will be certain of the ground you’re standing on. Because we believe this will be a long and difficult struggle. It’s within the police department, but all the city council members have received all the documents – and the city manager. And we believe that the press has not done a good job of investigating and sharing the information with the public. So there must be a group of people who make a commitment that they are going to ensure that the public understands, and then the public can be stronger players in a democratic process.”
Johnson then gave a PowerPoint presentation centered on Cherry, whom he contended was fired for assisting fellow officers with grievances. The official reason for Cherry’s dismissal was lack of discretion for acts including violation of a confidentiality agreement when he revealed that another captain said he could not trust officers who are plaintiffs in a federal discrimination lawsuit. Cherry contends that the remark revealed discrimination and retaliation within the department, and the need to report it as a violation of federal law trumped the confidentiality agreement.
Johnson’s presentation included the following details:
• Officer Joseph Pryor was investigated for an alleged assault against a suspect in which he had fallen during a chase and two white officers told investigators that Pryor was not involved, and in fact they struck the suspect. Initially, Pryor had received finding of unsustained, which was later changed to unfounded on appeal.
• Johnson said a Greensboro police captain violated the state’s personnel privacy law by pulling Officer Frances Banks’ personnel file so that she could compare her with another officer for the purpose of finding deficiencies and blocking her promotion.
• Officer AJ Blake was ordered into a police car at the direction of Assistant Chief Anita Holder after he was observed waving at Jorge Cornell of the Latin Kings, in alleged violation of the departmental directive against associating with a known offender, and threatened with dismissal.
• Officer Robert Reyes reported another officer for abuse of force.
• Capt. Charles Cherry helped all four officers file grievances.
• Chief Tim Bellamy, then nearing retirement, told a meeting of senior-level officers at the police department that if anyone there thought there was corruption, then could turn in their badges “and get the hell out.”
• Assistant Chief Dwight Crotts questioned Cherry about helping other officers file grievances, which is not against any departmental directive.
• Cherry was ordered to undergo a fitness-for-duty evaluation. Psychiatrists ultimately determined that he was, indeed, fit for duty.
“Why was Captain Cherry fired?” Johnson asked. “Because he challenged the GPD’s subculture of corruption and double standards by filing legitimate grievances. That’s our conclusion.”
Johnson also reviewed the case of Cornell, leader of the North Carolina Latin Kings. Johnson said that between 2005 and 2008, Cornell “sought to work with police officers,” noting that he had learned of it earlier in the same day. After the meeting Cornell said he had been approached by Detective Ernest Cuthbertson – at the time the only officer assigned to monitor gangs. Cornell said he initially took a positive view of working with the police.
“That was my goal: To get into the community and let them know that we’re not this organized criminal entity, and also let them know that we’re not going to stand for police brutality,” Cornell said.
Cornell said Cuthbertson wanted him to get his members to sit down with representatives of the Greensboro Police Department and the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office “so they could learn about our leadership structure and pounce on us.”
Cornell said he rebuffed Cuthbertson’s request, and the relationship deteriorated from there.
Because of police harassment, Johnson said many members of the Latin Kings have been “on the margin of being homeless,” and have struggled to remain employed because of having to expend time and money fighting false charges and because of contending with police spooking employers by visiting them and mentioning that their employers were gang members. As a result, Johnson said the Beloved Community Center, Pulpit Forum and Greensboro NAACP have had to provide financial support for members of the group.
During a period of the meeting opened up for comments and discussion, Johnson and the Rev. Randall Keeney brainstormed about the possibility of planning what Johnson termed “a spiritual mass community meeting.”
“As an organizer, my concern is if you don’t have a next step, then you just had a nice meeting,” Johnson said.
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