Oh! you mean THAT two page memo.
Posted in Greensboro City Council
Feb. 8, 2008 at 12:30
by BrendaBee
This week has been an unhealthy one for me because it seemed that every day I was sickened by another tale of criminal activities involving City Hall or the GPD. With most of these incidents stemming directly from the bungling and then lying attempt at cover up the dismemberment of the GPD coming from our city government. Today’s installment of rubbish was served up with morning coffee on the front page of the N&R.This so-called newspaper has been most instrumental in the destruction of the careers of several good men who served this city well for years as officers in the Greensboro Police Department. This newspaper gave birth to the “secret police” and the use of a “black book” and it’s being proof of vile racial profiling by the entire command staff of the GPD under David Wray. They held to this position for almost two years until the weight of evidence would no longer allow them to continue to slander these good men, and continue to support and facilitate the slimy attempts of our City Manager Mitch Johnson to justify his blundering.
The N&R has reluctantly backed off of their original stance in the David Wray fiasco, and even make the attempt from time to time to relate a story accurately. They do however never miss an opportunity to spin or slant the story against the former GPD officers and police chief. Today’s story was an example of this. The story as reported has accuracies in it, but with the judicious word-smithing they were still able to put David Wray and his officers in a poor light while allowing, and therefore lending credence to, Mitch Johnson’s ingenious justifications of his actions and/or incredibly naive explanations of the most recent buffoonery.
Take for instance the misleading use of the word tactic to add a sinister note to a common and time honored police investigative practice in the following quote. “The memo discusses the “black book”, a lineup of photos that police used to investigate a fellow officer. The tactic has been the subject of several investigations and has divided the community.” They also manage to indicate that the use of this particular methodology by the former officers in this case was the sole cause of the scandal now brewing for the better part of two years.
A tactic is a planned strategic move. So by using the word the N&R suggests that Wray and his command staff were deliberately trying to ensnare and gain some type of false testimony against one or more of 19 GPD Black police officers pictured in the book. However the use of photo arrays is a common method used to help the victim of a crime possibly identify the criminal. They are used in well over 90% of the investigations performed on a daily basis. As for being made up solely of Black men I would venture to say that since more crimes are committed by Black men there are far more photo arrays prepared of Black men. And since the crime committed for which this array was created was an accusation against a Black police officer then naturally the pictures used were of almost 100 Black men including the 19 Black officers who were in uniform and on duty at the time the crime was claimed by the victim to have taken place. Nothing sinister and certainly not a strategic move on the part of the GPD officers in this case. But of course as journalists the N&R staff deal with words and their meaning, and just how to use or not use the common and obscure and misleading meaning of words. I blogged on this awhile back in a post about an article by Jordan Green of YES!WEEKLY.
After doing as much damage as possible with the one misused word “tactic” the N&R goes on to report the story fairly accurately. This I suppose we must give them some credit for, although I am not sure why since it is a common belief that the journalists who write newspapers are using the utmost care to be accurate and non-judgmental at all times as a matter of ethics. One should not feel the need to give credit therefore for ethical behavior on the part of journalists.
Now we come to the disingenuous and laughable mumbling and stumbling of City Manager Mitchell Johnson in excusing the lies told by city staff. Lies told when demanded by him that they do so, I have no doubt. Mitch Johnson has again and again forced city staff to lie or take the blame for his “Mitchmanagement”.
After having a city attorney lie to a staff member of the N&R claiming there is no such two page memo as the N&R had requested which was later published on Ben Holder’s blog and in the Rhino Mitch said, “The truth of the matter is, until it got published, we didn’t know that’s what you were asking for.”
It is certainly hard to believe Johnson would have no idea that that particular two page memo was the one in question when it states exactly what it is and to which array book in a black three ring binder it refers. It is also hard to believe that one who feels he is so familiar with police operations wouldn’t know that it is common practice to always enclose an explanation of why the array was composed in with the line up book itself. The books are then stored for future reference. If the books were kept with no explanation of why and when they were composed they would have no meaning or use if needed in future investigations. This then goes to the question of why the two page memo of explanation was not used in the original investigation of the Wray and his command staff when it was referred to by the City Attorney’s report and the RMA report as the “black book”. If these investigators were as qualified as their price tag to tax payers indicated they are surely they too would have known that the book in a black binder and composed of almost one hundred faces of Black men was incomplete. That the City Councils (the last and current) did not understand the book without an explanation memo was incomplete can perhaps be forgiven. What can not be forgiven is that they didn’t even ask for solid proof that the book was used for the purpose as both the reports and Johnson told them it was. For people who are supposed to be relatively intelligent they sure have been putting on a good act of stupidity!
Then Johnson claims, “I’ve got to say, it kind of proves what I’ve been talking about all along.” He was referring to Wray and his command staff knowing what the “black book”, or book made up of pictures of all Black men, was when asked about it initially. Given that there are probably several hundred arrays of all Black men’s photos on file and that Wray and his staff had to study and figure out just what and which one Johnson was asking for is not too hard to understand. That Johnson and City Attorneys and RMA investigators and City Council members would latch onto a book made up of pictures of all Black men some of whom were police officers (which really isn’t uncommon to use anyhow in arrays) as proof of discrimination does indeed boggle the mind of any sane individual. Now we are to believe his euphoria over finally having “proof” of what he has been telling us all along? Not on your life Mitch Darlin’.
Given that Mitch Johnson expects us to believe he and his staff had no idea what two page memo was requested until seeing it published in a weekly newspaper, and even though the memo states exactly what it is, one would think he would have been willing to give Wray and his staff the benefit of the doubt when asked to produce a “black book” with no further details. Of course he wasn’t because he had his mission statement before him and was bound to perform as he was being told to perform (this is of course “my crazy assed conspiracy theory”.)
Now we come to the current City Council. Let me state this emphatically: ROBBIE PERKINS IS A THIEF, A CROOK, A LIAR AND A CHEAT! And ladies and gentlemen those are the good things I can say about him. BB
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Feb. 9, 2008 - Untitled Comment
"She wrote: "We have researched and are not aware of the existence of the alleged two-page memo summarizing the rationale behind the black book. Consequently, there is no public record in response to your request."If Mitch Johnson had read the RMA report, he would have seen on Page 26, Paragraph 2 that RMA investigators menion the two-page memo and that it was used to describe the rational for the line-up book, to be known as the "black book", which was described in paragraph 1 on Page 26. Of course, this assumes that Mitch Johnson actually read the report, before he locked Wray out of his office.
It should be noted that members of the city council also got copies of the RMA report so they should have known about the memo as well. Johnson didn;t count on the RMA report going public, though..
Posted by Anonymous
Feb. 9, 2008 - "Black book"
Thank you for coming by and reminding me of something I had forgotten.After making this post I read on anothers blog that the persons who made the two heinous investigative reports on Wray and his command staff did indeed have access to at least the two page memo describing the reason and use of the photo array. That was indeed new information to me. Or rather re-remembered information because I did slug thru the entire report when it came out. Then I was so disgusted by the pathetically inept was the investigation was conducted and the gross inaccuracy apparent in the report that I erased it from my mind. I commented at the time that if a student of my had turned in a research paper that was as full of suppositions and conclusion based purely on hear-say as is in the RMA report I would have trash canned it and failed the student. A more unprofessional piece of garbage than the RMA report it would be difficult to find unless perhaps it was the City Attorney's report which I did not read.But as you say since the city personnel had the entire "black book" it is all the more apparent that Mitch Johnson was determined to rid the city of David Wray. The question we need to ask and ANSWER is just why this was necessary. I am afraid the current city council will merely fiore Johnson and then consider the case closed since they want to move on and away from this fiasco. BB
Posted by BrendaFayBowers
