It was almost 30 years ago that I met a most unusual man, Edward Lawson
When at times I naively consider how courageous I am in speaking truth to power I think about Ed, and how he as a black man has bravely confronted the emissaries of the occasionally arrogant white law enforcement community. Details are available on his website. (http://edwardlawson.com)
Ed has told me of his recent experiences with the Los Angeles Sheriffs department. As you read it please consider that Ed is a grown up and brilliant African American activist with dreadlocks, who is an expert in civil liberties and what the cops can and cannot do to someone.
In the early morning hours of Friday, May 18, 2007, Ed was arrested, roughed up, and imprisoned by Los a Angeles County Sheriff's deputy who was leading one of the Sheriff's department's, "high-octane, super secret-special gang task force" groups.
Ed's car was impounded, and he was hand cuffed, and bounced around in the metal, back seat of deputy sheriff's car, careening through a good deal of Los Angeles County.
He was then imprisoned in their primarily all-black jail, and he was finally released without his shoes, in the distant town of Carson, California.
What had started as just another ordinary day, for another Negro, (his word) in the "United States of America" had turned into a nightmare. What had happened to him was without a discernable reason, and without any explanation.
The next day, Ed shifted his word processor into high gear and wrote a letter to the honorable Los Angeles County Sheriff Leroy D. Baca and asked Mr. Baca, if he would send him a copy of the deputy sheriff's arrest report and some other documents and records, relating to his arrest and incarceration.
Apparently the honorable Sheriff Leroy D. Baca ignored his request.
He wrote the honorable Sheriff Leroy D. Baca again. The honorable Sheriff Leroy D. Baca ignored him once again.
He has written to Sheriff Leroy D. Baca again and again and again and has yet to receive any of the documents or records requested.
What exactly had happened to Ed on the morning of May 18, 2007? The probable answer was revealed in a front page article written By Scott Glover and Matt Lait and published on October 4th 2007 in the Los Angeles Times: headlined : "Deputies compete in arrest contests" "Southeast L.A. competitions were meant to boost morale", official says.
Sheriff Baca calls this "a well-meaning but ill-conceived idea".
WELL MEANING?
By Scott Glover and Matt Lait
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers)
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/1353327911.html?dids=1353327911:1353327911&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Oct+4%2C+2007&author=Scott+Glover%3BMatt+Lait&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&edition=&startpage=A.1&desc=The+State%3B+For+deputies%2C+arrests+can+be+a+contest%3B+Competitions+boost+morale%2C+an+official+says.+Baca+calls+them+wrong.
Apparently bored the Sheriff's deputies in some of the "people of color" (p.o.c.) areas of Los Angeles, decided to make up a little contest. The contest was simple. The Sheriff's deputy, who could arrest the most p.o.c. and impound the most p.o.c. autos, would win the contest.
This is apparently what happened to Ed and to his car.
Ed had innocently wandered into the middle of a bunch of "the boys" from Simi Valley, amusing themselves, with the local color and a little game. Ed was the wrong p.o.c. in the wrong place and unwittingly playing in an unconscionable and bizarre contest. The kind of contest that reduces urban areas into theme parks for suburb bored police.
Sadly, after a year of writing, waiting and being ignored, the Honorable Sheriff Leroy D. Baca and his people have not done the right thing. Ed has received zero documents, zero records, and Ed has received zero relevant response to his reasonable requests.
And for a bonus the results from the Los Angeles Times expose on the Sheriff's deputies "little contest" is: zero investigation, zero firings, zero arrests, and (drum roll please) zero prosecutions.
How could this be? You may remember Edward Lawson from all the Oprah, Donahue and Larry King appearances about his 1983, landmark United State Supreme Court, Civil Rights Case, Kolender v Lawson (that's current San Diego County Sheriff Bill Kolender). (KOLENDER v. LAWSON, 461 U.S. 352 (1983)
Argued November 8, 1982, decided May 2, 1983, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_C._Lawson.
Edward Lawson, representing himself, took, the "California Walkman, I.D. Case" all the way to the United States Supreme Court and won. On May 2, 2008, Lawson will celebrate the 25th anniversary of his victory in the United State Supreme Court. Now is a different time, a different place, a different Sheriff, but the same old story. Does Lawson really have anything to celebrate? Do we as a nation of order, under constitutional law, have anything to celebrate, in the era of the error of the well meaning?
Shortly after the ruling Ed appeared on CNN's Crossfire. Pat Buchanan said to him "Mr. Lawson, what did you expect as a black man with dreadlocks walking in a white neighborhood?" Lawson replied "I thought that I was walking in an American neighborhood!"
Ed told me over and over for many years something like the following: "I respect the right of anyone to be a racist and say whatever they wish about me however, they may not restrict my rights in any way because of my race."
It would be a good thing if we could all "just get along and sing kumbaya together" but it just aint gonna happen.
I now take the unauthorized liberty of quoting some of the lyrics of a Tom Lehrer song "National Brotherhood Week" that I whip out for special occasions like this. For all of you "much younger folks." Lena Horne was a popular Black singer and Clark a big time racist Southern Sheriff.
Many life lessons are to be learned from Lehrer, and these lyrics are just a couple of them.
Oh, the white folks hate the black folks
And the black folks hate the white folks
To hate all but the right folks
Is an old established rule
But during National Brotherhood Week
National Brotherhood Week
Lena Horne and Sheriff Clark
Are dancing cheek to cheek
It's fun to eulogize
The people you despise
As long as you don't let 'em in your school ...
Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics
And the Catholics hate the Protestants
And the Hindus hate the Moslems
And everybody hates the Jews
Final question: Will Sheriff Baca and his deputies vote for Barak Obama?
Norman Horowitz
