Black leaders, media draw critics after deputy killed

Seattle Post-Intelligencer ^ | Wednesday, June 26, 2002 | VANESSA HO AND MIKE BARBER

[ValerieUSA]

'Shootings involving officers often spark raw emotions about race, but in the latest incident, in which a drug addict is accused of killing a police officer, the issue of race has emerged with a twist.

In the past, black community leaders have criticized police departments after shootings involving officers. But after Saturday's shooting, in which a black man killed a white King County Sheriff's deputy, the Seattle-area black community is feeling the heat.

"I've never been accused of being a racist, but what I see is creating a racist climate. I'm becoming someone who is divisive," said George Baena, 65, a retired military aviator from Olympia.

Baena, who is white, said he's angry at black leaders whom he says have blamed police and white people with a broad brush of accusations.

"Without a doubt, they have opened this racial box," he said. "Now there's a white backlash when it happens in reverse."

Yesterday, after a day of anger on local talk radio programs, a group of prominent black leaders called a news conference to respond. They said people were "politicizing" the death of Deputy Richard Herzog by making race an issue, and by associating it with a controversial shooting last April. That incident involved a white off-duty sheriff's deputy killing a black man.

"This is not a black, red, brown or white issue," said James Kelly, president of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle. "This is a mental health issue."

They condemned the shooting and expressed condolences to the family of the slain deputy and to the Sheriff's Office. They also urged people to focus their attention on improving treatment for people who are mentally ill or addicted to drugs.

"We are appalled by this tragedy. Our prayers, our thoughts and our sympathies are extended to the Herzog family, his children, to his wife and the King County Sheriff's Office," said the Rev. John Hunter, pastor of First AME Church.

Herzog was responding to complaints about an agitated, naked man blocking traffic on Coal Creek Parkway Southeast in Newcastle. Herzog, alone on patrol in Newcastle, used pepper spray on the man, Ronald Matthews Sr., 44, a felon with a history of violence and troubles with crack cocaine and depression.

But Matthews, fresh from prison after serving time for assaulting a Bellevue officer, charged at the deputy. In the struggle, he took Herzog's gun and shot him several times, including rounds fired at point-blank range while horrified witnesses looked on. Herzog was shot in the leg and died from multiple gunshot wounds to the head, the King County Medical Examiner's Office said yesterday.

Sheriff Dave Reichert, visibly shaken, appeared on TV news programs, angrily denouncing the killing as an "execution."

Among those who e-mailed the Seattle Post-Intelligencer to express their own indignation was Michael Wood, 35, of Kent. Wood, a white sales representative, last night said he was "appalled" that black leaders called the main issue in the Herzog case one of mental health and not race.

Black leaders have gone out of their way to "immediately raise race as an issue" when a white officer uses deadly force against a black suspect, he said. Whites, now sensitized to the issue, naturally are suspicious if black racism is a factor when the reverse happens, he added.

"I believe deputy Herzog would be alive today had he been a black man," said Wood, adding that his own brother was murdered by black suspects in Tacoma in 1998.

Others called radio talk show hosts, who couldn't seem to get enough. Among them was John Carlson, the conservative afternoon talker on KVI-AM, and former candidate for governor.

Carlson's audience wondered why black community leaders had been silent about the shooting, considering they had been so vocal the last time an officer was involved in a shooting.

They questioned why the media had downplayed race in this shooting, when race was at the forefront of the last incident, which provoked some black leaders to organize a community protest that shut down Interstate 5.

Some wondered why the Seattle media were slow to report that Kristopher Kime, a young man beaten to death during last year's Mardi Gras riots in Pioneer Square, was one of several whites targeted by roving black youths.

"I think that people are beginning to notice that people who are often described in the media as civil rights leaders are more concerned about race than rights," Carlson said yesterday.

Carlson, a 40-year Seattle resident, said he hasn't seen racial tensions this bad since the 1960s.

He said his simple test for evaluating racially charged incidents such as police shootings is "when in doubt, reverse the races (of those involved) and see if you feel the same way."

Black leaders at yesterday's news conference said the shootings involved different circumstances. Hunter said Saturday's case involved a police officer who had clearly been trying to calm a naked, disturbed man, who happened to be black.

In April's shooting, he said a black man had been killed after a resident in a predominantly white neighborhood was suspicious of him and contacted police. In that case, Robert Thomas Sr. had been parked in a truck in an unfamiliar neighborhood near Renton, when officer Mel Miller, who was off duty but armed, approached him. Miller said Thomas pulled a gun on him and that he had to shoot.

Nate Miles, with the African American Agenda, a political advocacy group, said race was one of the many questions surrounding that case.

"How did this man get killed? You can't be quick to jump to the issue. Was it because he was African American? Was it because more training was needed? Was it because of what took place in the cab of the truck?"

Some people have wondered whether the sensitivity surrounding race relations caused Herzog to be more tentative around Matthews. On Monday, while Carlson was interviewing Reichert, Miller called in.

Miller, who is on leave pending the resolution of his case, said he is concerned that as a result of the outrage over the Thomas case, Herzog might have risked his safety by approaching Matthews differently than he would a white man. He said he is worried about other officers.

"I'm just asking that from me and from the sheriff, don't let my situation plant that seed of doubt. Who knows if that played a role in Rich's case. I just don't want anybody else to be hurt because of this," he said, his voice breaking with emotion.

Herzog, a seven-year police veteran and retired U.S. Army Special Forces sergeant, leaves a wife, Sun, and two children, Sonja, 18; and Erika, 15. For the next 45 days, King County Executive Ron Sims has authorized county employees to convert vacation or comp time as a payroll deduction that would go into the Richard Herzog Children Trust.

Yesterday, Herzog's widow, escorted by a sergeant and a Sheriff's chaplain, visited the roadside memorial at the site of the shooting.

"She's heard a lot about the outpouring of support from the community," Sheriff's spokesman Greg Dymerski said yesterday.

"She is still distraught but was moved beyond words by the unbelievable support and the love shown by all the people who stopped by to offer words of love and encouragement."

MEMORIAL PROCESSION

A before services for Deputy Richard Herzog tomorrow will cause closures or restrictions on the Eastside and in South King County. The King County Sheriff's Office is warning motorists that traffic could be stopped from 8:15 to 9 a.m. in the 7200 block of Southeast Coal Creek Parkway in Newcastle, near where Herzog was shot to death Saturday.

Interstate 405 and state Routes 518 and 509 will have closures and heavy traffic from 9 to 9:30 a.m.

A procession of police and other emergency vehicles will begin at 8:15 a.m. at the scene of the shooting, then go south on I-405 until it becomes state Route 518 going uphill toward Burien. The procession then will go south on state Route 509 to South 188th Street, east to International Boulevard and finally south to South 210th Street.

The service will begin at 11 a.m. at the Christian Faith Center at South 210th Street and International Boulevard.

[ValerieUSA]

Not a well-written report at all. The liberals at the P-I are predisposed to oppose any point made by KVI's conservative talk show hosts.

The black leaders have been caught in their hypocrisy - every police shooting involving a dead black suspect is a racial issue - but this crime, where a black convict cold-bloodedly shot a white police officer who was using all the self-restraint that the black community demanded cops use, well, this is a mental health issue, not a race issue.

[ValerieUSA]

Previous thread on the shooting

[cynicom]

For white people in the US, the race issue is a one way street and they are going the wrong way.

[LibertarianLiz]

The reply from the Black community "leaders" is always the same song. During Mardi Gras, they seemed quite offended; not by the violence being perpetrated by the black hoodlums on the whites in the crowd, but by the fact that we had the audacity to say something about it.

This is the same, we're not supposed to notice these things; and, if we do, we are certainly not supposed to actually complain about it.

[G.Mason]

"Nate Miles, with the African American Agenda, a political advocacy group, said race was one of the many questions surrounding that case."

"A hyphenated American is not an American at all.
This is just as true of the man who puts 'Native' before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or French before the hyphen.
Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul.
Our allegiance must be purely to the United States.
We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance."

Theodore Roosevelt... 1915

[archy]

The Seattle Times
Wednesday, June 26, 2002 - 12:00 a.m. Pacific

County deputy's killing deplored; black leaders call news conference

By Alex Fryer
Seattle Times staff reporter

THE SEATTLE TIMES

The Rev. John Hunter, left, speaks while Herman McKinney, in back, listens.

Under different circumstances, the Rev. John Hunter said, the news conference at First A.M.E. Church yesterday could have been much different. If Ronald Matthews had been shot by police while ranting naked in the streets, some religious and civic leaders might have criticized law enforcement for taking the life of another black man.

Instead, Hunter stood before microphones at a news conference to convey his sorrow for the death of King County sheriff's Deputy Richard Herzog, who was killed Saturday, witnesses say, after he scuffled with Matthews in a Newcastle intersection. Matthews will be charged with aggravated first-degree murder today, prosecutors said.

"Our silence would be misconstrued as callousness," Hunter said of the decision to speak publicly.

"We believe committed moral leadership demands we speak on this issue, just as we have spoken when we believe there was an excessive use of force by law enforcement. We must speak on this case — this was wrong."

Hunter said his church prayed for Herzog's family, his colleagues and the community at large.

Race, he said, had nothing to do with the shooting. That sentiment was echoed by James Kelly, president of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, and Nate Miles of the African American Agenda.

But the e-mail coming to Metropolitan King County Councilman Larry Gossett seems to be cleaved by race.

In April, Gossett joined a march that blocked Interstate 5 to protest the shooting of Robert Lee Thomas Sr., a black man shot and killed in his vehicle by an off-duty King County sheriff's deputy in Renton. The deputy contends Thomas had a handgun.

Last weekend, when Gossett heard about a deputy being killed with his own gun in Newcastle, he privately hoped the defendant wasn't African American, he said.

"I knew the general population would think it had something to do with race," he said.

And while Gossett doesn't know the race of those who sent him messages in recent days, the content was uniformly scalding: What do you think about a black man shooting an unarmed white man? What are your plans to shut down I-5? Haven't seen you ranting on TV this time.

"I don't have a crystal ball to know what percent of the population these attitudes represent, but it's a lot of people," Gossett said.

"They believe that the black community doesn't use discretion when talking about disproportionality."

Gossett said he and other leaders of the African-American community don't protest every police shooting, but they remain concerned that officers more often use lethal force against blacks than against whites.

Deputy Richard Herzog

Those at the news conference were asked whether those community concerns and protests might have deterred Herzog from using greater force to subdue Matthews.

"No one can get into the mind of a police officer," Miles said. "We hope that no officer would have to double-think anything.

"What's said at City Hall or on the streets doesn't affect them. They have split seconds to make a decision."

An anonymous voice-mail message left for Kelly urged him to hold a news conference to express sorrow about the Newcastle shooting. But the woman also warned Kelly "not to fall into the group-guilt thing" and to press ahead with demands for police reforms.

Kelly said he wanted to express his sorrow over the Newcastle shooting because "you have to call bad bad, and this was bad. There's no way the officer should have got what he got. All I can say is, 'Condolences.' "

The greater lesson, said Kelly, was the need for mental-health programs and drug treatment for repeat offenders.

Matthews, a 1976 graduate of Lincoln High School in Seattle, has been convicted of 11 felonies and 13 misdemeanors since 1983.

Although Bellevue police officials have questioned why Matthews was released from prison this month after serving about half of a one-year sentence for assaulting a Bellevue officer last year, sheriff's spokesman Greg Dymerski said, his office isn't entering the debate over how the justice system handled that case.

"Right now, that really isn't an issue for us," Dymerski said.

"The issue right now is burying and remembering our fallen officer and properly respecting and taking care of his family."

Alex Fryer: 206-464-8124 or afryer@seattletimes.com. Seattle Times staff reporter Ian Ith contributed to this report.

*********************************************************

Richard Herzog memorial service

The King County Sheriff's Office is preparing for the possibility that as many as 500 police cars from across Washington state, Oregon and California will participate in a motorcade to a public memorial service tomorrow for slain Deputy Richard Herzog. The memorial is scheduled to run from about 11 a.m. to about 12:30 p.m.

[ValerieUSA]

Thank you for the Times article.

Last weekend, when Gossett heard about a deputy being killed with his own gun in Newcastle, he privately hoped the defendant wasn't African American, he said.
"I knew the general population would think it had something to do with race," he said.

Hunter, Gossett and Kelly say that race was not the issue - yet they know better or they wouldn't have been at the news conference.

[B4Ranch]

the African-American community don't protest every police shooting, but they remain concerned that officers more often use lethal force against blacks than against whites.

Could this be because there is more violence emitting from Blacks than whites?

[cleancutguy]

Hunter said his church prayed for Herzog's family, his colleagues and the community at large. Race, he said, had nothing to do with the shooting. That sentiment was echoed by James Kelly, president of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, and Nate Miles of the African American Agenda.

Actually, witnesses on the scene reported that Ronald Matthews was shouting and yelling about race and racial issues as he was running around in the street and pounding on cars and a metro bus with his fists.

Last year he put a female officer from a neighboring town in the hospital after pumelling her with his fists. On that occasion, it took seven officers to subdue him after pepper spray had no effect on him. He's your basic out of control crack addict who goes berzerk after smoking the stuff. He had been released early from prision just 11 days prior to Herzog's murder.

[Billthedrill]

We must speak on this case — this was wrong...

Well, gosh, that was big of him. What he's saying is that it's wrong for a felon crack addict to run around naked stopping traffic, assault a police officer physically, steal his gun and put 11 bullets into the back of his head, even if the guy is black. My, that is quite a concession...

The local press are desperately spinning this just as they did the Mardi Gras murder, as other than racial. It won't work, not this time. We may finally have a bit of real dialogue - that's where both sides get to speak - on race here in Seattle, and "all" it took was the death of a police officer to get it. We have been reduced to this.

[archy]

Could this be because there is more violence emitting from Blacks than whites?

Not necessarily. Though there are more blacks caught and convicted of violent crimes, that's no indication of who has committed more successful criminal acts, and it's probable more likely that black criminals are preying on their own neighborhoods as a matter of opportunity, in which many such crimes remain unreported.

That's not to say that the question you raise isn't an interesting or important one. But the likely sources of compiled information used to answer the question are thereby themselves too inaccurate to be of much real use when looking at the broad overall picture.

-archy-/-

[Hacksaw]

Didn't the man responsible for the racially motivated Mardi Gras murder get a whole eight years, with no hate crime charges?

[Cap'n Crunch]

Thanks for the ping.

I noticed that Matthews had just got out of prison for assaulting a police officer. I have no doubt that he sharpened his "disarming" skills while in prison.

Occassionally they show us videos of inmates practicing how to disarm cops while they are doing time.

Had this officer shot Matthews Seattle would be in flames the next day. no doubt about it.

I think it is a societal problem. I have lately been interested in the CD's of vehicles I stop while on patrol. The message in some of these rap CD's is appalling. The NAACP, and all of us for that matter, need to start standing up to this filth that is promoting hatred and paganism. Democrats and liberals are dumbing down our schools and pandering to "poverty pimps" like Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton.

ooops, sorry, I'll get off my little soapbox. This stuff just gets under my skin.

Martin Luther King said we should judge each other on the content of our character, I agree, but our characters are being polluted with hatred and filth. Terrible shame. Here I go again LOL.

[r9etb]

Carlson, a 40-year Seattle resident, said he hasn't seen racial tensions this bad since the 1960s.

LOL! Carlson is no more than 45 years old -- closer to 40, IIRC, and his age was in the single digits during the 60s. I have to think that the reporter is simply a lot younger than Carlson, and thus gives him more credit than he deserves for properly remembering the racial climate of the time.

I like Carlson a lot, but he had no business making such a claim (which brings to mind Bill Clinton's "church burnings"), and the reporter had no business writing it down.

[Cap'n Crunch]

Boy, I'm fit to be tied right now.

I read about Matthews light sentence after 11 prior felony convictions and just getting released after his assault on another police officer and the prison system/justice system saying they don't want to debate.

My brother works in a prison, my neighbor is a CO at the same prison. The prison systems in this country are worse than a joke. For instance, the prison I'm speaking of is run by a lesbian.

The inmates do water colors and finger paints and then their examined by shrinks to find out what's troubling them.

My CO neighbor tells me horror stories of what happens if they use any type of force against an inmate. The liberals are in charge of these prisons and they are a complete waste. The inmates run the prisons, that's all there is to it.

Wait till I come to power in this country LOL.

[Bahbah]

It's a very good soap box - and take care out there.

[Cap'n Crunch]

Thank you, and I will take care. You be careful too, it's crazy out there.