Posted on 03/16/2014 5:24:48 AM PDT by Altura Ct.
The decades-old strain between the black community and the Police Department has permeated the agency's rank-and-file.
Roughly 125 black police officers, city activists and clergy members met behind closed doors late Tuesday with Deputy Mayor Kanika Tomalin to discuss widespread racial turmoil. Tensions ran high during the 90-minute meeting held at Mount Zion Progressive Missionary Baptist Church on 20th Street S.
The group asked the city to halt five promotions, likely all white officers, planned for next month and asked for an outside agency to investigate the department's inequities against black officers.
"It's not about individuals," Assistant Chief Luke Williams told the group. "It's about relationships in the community."
While meeting leaders asked the media to leave and sit outside so the group could talk openly, reporters from the Tampa Bay Times and the Weekly Challenger could hear every word through a collapsible wall dividing the room and the sitting area.
Those attending told Tomalin that they have no faith in the white leaders of the department. After hearing complaints for about 20 minutes, Tomalin said she and Mayor Rick Kriseman would not intervene.
"Like it or not, we have a person serving as interim chief," Tomalin said, referring to interim Chief David DeKay. "The mayor is not at all interested in undermining his authority."
The crowd wasn't pacified by her response.
With a nationwide search under way for a new police chief, the department is fractured into two camps behind the top internal candidates: Williams and Assistant Chief Melanie Bevan.
Williams has the support of fellow black officers. Many on Tuesday accused Bevan of running the department while working behind the scenes to win union support. She declined to comment Wednesday.
Kriseman also would not comment on the issues Wednesday. "At this point in time, I'm gathering all the facts," he said. "I'm not prepared to respond."
The group also said they worried that the internal strife could keep top candidates from applying for the post. Many of the messages they hammered in Tuesday were common refrains in last fall's mayor's race, including:
• Lack of communication and disregard for high-ranking African-Americans in the department. Black officers believe the chain of command is broken and accused white leaders of intentionally hiding information to ostracize and back-stab them.
• Black officers say they have no way up the ladder. They accused white leaders of passing over African-Americans to promote union activists who want to hold power. The group wants Kriseman to shelve next month's promotions until a new chief takes over.
• Black officers believe they are held to different standards by the brass and face more scrutiny when discipline is issued. They also say leaders react faster when complaints are made against black officers.
Since taking office in January, Kriseman kept a pledge to tighten the pursuit policy expanded under former Mayor Bill Foster. The union opposed the change, but residents applauded.
A union leader declined to comment on the group's issues Wednesday but has repeatedly said the union doesn't have a favorite candidate and only wants a new chief.
Last month, DeKay announced that the agency would appoint four new sergeants and a lieutenant in April. More would follow once a new chief is selected, the memo said.
With four sergeant slots available, the chief can look at five candidates for each job. Of the 36 eligible, the highest African-American ranked 22nd. The other two were ranked 30th and 32nd.
For one lieutenant spot, the highest-ranking black officer was fifth.
"What they're trying to do is the PBA (union) is trying to stack the deck," a man told Tomalin. "This isn't our first rodeo."
"We expect to be treated equally throughout the process," an officer shouted.
The crowd clapped.
In the recent election, the Suncoast Police Benevolent Association was among Foster's biggest supporters, pouring money into his campaign and providing foot soldiers to canvass streets for votes.
Several people reminded Tomalin on Tuesday that the black community helped put Kriseman in City Hall.
"You should inform the mayor that we need an independent, outside investigation of the Police Department," a man told Tomalin. "They don't have the best intention of African-Americans."
She cautioned that such an investigation could halt the promotions and chief search.
Tomalin reassured the group that Kriseman cares about the problems, but she needed to hear more specific examples. No one has more invested in St. Petersburg than she and Kriseman, Tomalin added.
One man warned that Kriseman could lose support in neighborhoods south of Central Avenue if he doesn't quell the flaring tensions. "We ask Kriseman to not turn his back on us," the man said. "Right now it seems like it didn't matter."
Tomalin said the allegations of unfairness surrounding the testing and selection process need scrutiny from city officials. "I speak for the mayor. I'm the deputy mayor," she said, later noting politics wasn't a factor. "These promotions will not happen."
The tension subsided.
After the meeting, Tomalin said that the community has "some serious needs to work on" and that she has the authority to halt the promotions without input from Kriseman or DeKay.
On Wednesday afternoon, DeKay said he had not talked to Tomalin, but said the group's allegations will be taken seriously by the department.
"We're aware of the issues," he said. "We're sorting through them. There will be action taken."
Blacktivist ....
Black-RATs vs Union-RATs.
I like it.
Actually this seems to be a battle between union thugs and black officers. I would surmise there is no “good” side in this battle. But, if the union are protecting their own, the black officers may have a case.
Bm
Well, there's your problem ... you are using objective criteria.
“Of the 36 eligible, the highest African-American ranked 22nd. The other two were ranked 30th and 32nd. For one lieutenant spot, the highest-ranking black officer was fifth.
Well, there’s your problem ... you are using objective criteria.”
********************************************************************
It’s not FAIR to discriminate against the room-temperature IQ crowd!
I see these things getting worse as we balkanize our population more by bringing in more "disadvantaged" in the future. Every ethnic group seems to have a grievance against “the establishment”. These grievances can mostly be traced to either a desire or inability to gain traction in the economic system. Ironically, those who do advance seem to have no problems. Seems to me they did so by way of education and personal perseverance. Those who don't have a grudge and continue to whine about “unfairness” rather than looking within. They point to racial discrimination rather than to a class bias which it more likely is. For instance, Do I want to live next to a crack house, a low income housing development, zig zag past double and triple parked low riders, or listen to bongo drums 24/7. NO. I am tired of it all.
It’s funny looking at some of the comments at the article. People whining about “white supremacy”, etc, etc.
“We expect equallity but demand special treatment because we are black!”
As long as there remains a “Congressional Black Caucus”, African American Firefighters Assns., and all the other splinter, racist groups, backed by a polarizing, racist administration, there will always be tensions in society.
Social justice is just another name for picking Whitey’s pocket. Equality is not the goal, never was.
Being a racially closed meeting you've got to wonder if they we discussing the tensions as a and to problem to be solved or as a celebration of a goal achieved and to be built on.
Google "The Uhuru Movement" and you will find the root cause of this decades old strain...
These racists have been causing trouble in St Petersburg for a long time
I would guarantee some of the "city activist" are Uhuru members...stirring up racial problems...
“He postulated they outlawed slavery before the US did so what would have happened is they would have loaded them all on ships and sent them back to africa ending potential racial problems here.”
That isn’t how they dealt with them in Canada or Bermuda.
“Every ethnic group seems to have a grievance against “the establishment”.”
Only the perpetually underperforming do; I don’t see such groups for “Euro-Americans” or Asians.
“Social justice is just another name for picking Whitey’s pocket. Equality is not the goal, never was.”
Affirmative action is a de facto admission by protected groups and the government that “administers” them that they are in fact genetically inferior. Blacks, Hispanics, and females all seem to admit to their inferiority (wanting it enshrined in law), and are laughing all the way to the bank. While destruction of the white males may be their intent, in the end they always come crawling back looking for someone who actually has knowledge and ability; corporations and governments in the end rely on the white guys when the stuff hits the fan, and the tokens are just an added financial burden (like the cost of an additional gubmint regulation).
“Only the perpetually underperforming do; I don’t see such groups for “Euro-Americans” or Asians”
I covered that point by noting those who complain or whine seem to be those who are not successful.
On your other point, point taken.
Black officers say they have no way up the ladder.
1.Affermitive action
2.Fed quotas
3.Race card
Yawn
So true!
Very simple. How is "merit" determined?
If by reviews from superiors, then it's not objective.
If by grades on standardized tests, then it's not "fair" if there is disproportionate impact on minorities.
Simple answer: There is no conceivable way of determining merit that would satisfy those who expect proportionate results.
In actual fact, black officers promoted in proportion to their representation in the department wouldn't satisfy them. Only a moratorium on white promotions till the upper ranks are representative of the force, or possibly of the community.
Which is, of course, utterly unfair to those individual white officers denied promotion simply because of their race.
Give ‘em all 40 acres and a white slave. Reparations!
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