COPS AND THUGS KEEP SHOOTING AND CHILDREN KEEP DUCKING: HOW MUCH LONGER CAN THEY DUCK?

This blog was written in 2017 and it is being revisited after the fatal shooting of a one year old baby boy, Carmelo Ducan.  “He Barely lived before he died” is an understatement!

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser said, “this level of senselessness is impossible to process and we need everybody’s help to bring justice to this baby Carmelo and his family, and to get a very dangerous person off the streets. We are all sick of the heinous crimes in our city.” These are famous last words that sound like a broken record every time a black child dies.

Since Mayor Bowser hired a “LAME DUCK” and well known corrupt cop as police chief, crime has spiked every year Peter Newsham has been in charge.   Now he is a “LAME DUCK” headed out of the ‘Back Door’ to take over as chief of a department in Prince William County, Virginia.  The last time I heard the words “LAME DUCK” was when DC Mayor Bowser called DC City Councilman David Grosso that same name when he called for Newsham to be fired!  During the confirmation hearing held by the council in 2017, Grosso was the only council member to vote against the hiring of Newsham.

Edward Matthew Glass again I want to thank for that nugget of a phrase I found from you in my email. I could not have said it better—it was PRICELESS!

If you missed what he said about the worst kind of racism found in the black community.  He said, “It is the kind of racism you have to fight off with one hand because the other hand is too busy writing trying to keep slave negroes (including family) from attacking me (behind my back) while I defend them.”

He hit a homerun with me.  In 1970 on my successful sports talk show “Inside Sports” I coined a phrase I would close out my show every Saturday evening with, “Every black I saw was not my brother and every white face I saw was not my enemy!  I learned the hard way thanks to John Thompsons, Sugar Ray Leonards, James Browns, Dave Bings, Adrian Dantleys, Darryl Hills, Adrian Branchs, Cathy Hughes, Chris Thomas, Cornelius Greenes, Michael Wilbons, Jair Lynchs, Kevin Blackistones, Bill Rhodens and Larry Fitzgerald, Sr.

Each one of them came through Kids In Trouble and Inside Sports before their 15 minutes of fame.  The common denominator “SUCCESS”, they all disappeared without a trace.  And then there were the already made so called super-stars who faced racism despite their star-status and had to turn to me for help and support.  They include, Jim Brown, Calvin Hill, Don King, and Doug Williams.

NFL runners Jim Brown and Calvin Hill smiling faces telling lies.

What made me and Inside Sports different from today’s media personalities—I was a community personality and a all-around athlete long before I hit the airwaves in 1965 with talk show and media icon, Petey Greene.

It all started in a one room shack on Douglas street in NE DC.   My mother remembered, I must have been three or four years old when she slipped out early one morning thinking I was asleep to run to a corner store to get milk and bread.  She left me with my German shepard dog Billy and a keroscene lamp to keep us warm.

She returned to find fire trucks and the shack on fire with me crying in the yard and my dog Billy standing over me.   The only thing remained standing was the Outhouse.  Today I still have no clue how I got out of that burning shack and my dog never said a word and God has blessed me ever since.

Petey Greene was my partner and mentor.  He gave me 5 minutes on his show, “Petey Greene’s Washington” every Sunday evening on W-O-L Radio to talk sports and the rest is sports talk radio history.

Today’s black media personalities only become experts as it relates to the black experience after they are hired as a writer at the Washington Post, New York Times or become an reporter on one of the local TV channels.  Check their backgrounds and track records for working in the war zones of the inner-city in the fight for civil and human rights before they became media personalities—you will come up with zero.  Their only hands on black experience is walking and driving while black.

WR for the champion Virginia Sailors minor league NFL affiliate Washington football team.

The real problem in the black community it is overrun with Player-Haters.  They bring with them, envy and jealousy traits that run deep back to the slave ships that brought us to America.  Success of any kind experienced by another person of color whom does not sell-out and can think for one’s self are often seen as “Trouble Makers!”

Far too many blacks think white folks hate them—the truth be told is that white folks envy us and want to be like us!  For example; the suntan lotion business is a trillion dollar industry and it is not because our cabinets and shelves are overrun with the product.  Why do you thing big butts, big lips, big noses are the in-thing with white folks today?  They take our soul and jazz music and claim it as their own. They even take our gestures.  Do you remember the big deal they made over President Obama and the First Lady Fist Bumping on National television?   Today everywhere you look they are fist bumping and high fiving.   Check out the dance routines of NFL white players after they score a touchdown or sack the quarterback!

They stole Famous Amos’ name and his cookies and made them their very own.  In 2020 they are now selling his name and the cookies for billions of dollars.   His networth, $20,000.

The Washington Post also stole my radio sports talk format “Inside Sports”.   Washington Post and its owner Katharine Graham stole Inside Sports while I was in studio with her sports writers, Michael Wilbon, Dave Dupree, Donald Huff, Byron Rosen, Leonard Sharpiro and editor George Solomon talking sports.  No surprise this has been their mode of operation for over 400 years.  The paper took my tag Inside Sports to New York City and discovered “Inside Sports Magazine”?  The magazine failed after a two-year run.  They could not figure out how to transfer my radio success into print.

Washington Post sports editor George Solomon kneeling with sun glasses 2nd from right

This is the letter with a check for $1,500 I received from Katharine Graham’s son Donald while they were stealing my show tag “Inside Sports” asking for anonimity.

The problem is that we don’t like ourselves. When are we going to understand that the 1% are not going to volunteer to give up their Power & Money to us, reparations is out of the realm of logical thinking in 2020.

Those of you who think you have made it are in for a rude awaking.  You can run, but you cannot hide behind those Gated Communities forever.   It’s a given you will eventually have to come out and join “The Real World’ and when you do there is the possibility you and your children will encounter racism in the blink of an eye.

Racism comes in all sizes and colors the worst kind is an encounter with a white or black racist cop with a badge and gun on a lonely and dark road.  The road can be in Rock Creek Park in the Nation’s Capitol, or a stretch on Lottsford Road in Prince Georges County or DaKalb County in Atlanta.  When that scared cowardly cop gets out of his or her car and approaches your vehicle with their hand on their gun before he or she ask to see your driver’s license and registration.   The first thing they see is your black face—you are guilty as charged with a DWB (driving while black).

You won’t have time to explain that you are not black and you are from, Trinidad, Haiti, Jamaica or some other Caribbean Island—too late.  He has already determined who you are by your black skin (you are the big N).  Racism/Police Brutality is American as Apple Pie.  It is often said if you don’t know your history you are bound to repeat it.  In 2020 we are repeating the 1800s.  I am going to give you a quick History Lesson 101 as it relates to racism and police brutality in America.  It all started during slavery when the slaves ran for their freedom and were chase by the slave owners and their ‘House Negroes’ with guns, dogs, whips, ropes and house nigras.  Many were caught and hung by their necks from the nearest tree.  Today little has changed because the former slave owners became card carrying members of the KKK and they were the first to infiltrate today’s police departments all across the country.  They found the FOP and the FOP is now the KKK.

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser appointing troubled cop Peter Newsome as new DC Police Chief.  His past history is of domestic violence and he is a known alcoholic and bigot.  He was found in a DC street lying drunk with gun in hoster.  Help was definitely not on the way in DC in 2017.  As they say, “Proof is in the puddin” in 2020.

I spent 50+ years working in the streets in the District, Maryland and Virginia with police officers in each jurisdiction. I have seen “The Good, Bad and Ugly when it comes to cops”. My two brothers were law-enforcement officers. I was up close and personal as they experienced “The Thin Blue line and the Code of Silence” from their fellow officers while trying to be ‘Good Cops in the hood’ in corrupt departments (U. S. Marshall & DC cop).  My best friend Andrew Johnson was a DC cop and homicide detective and he retired as a Supervisor with the DEA.  My mentor Luke C. Moore was the first modern day U. S. Marshall appointed by  President Lyndon Johnson.   We walked arm and arm with Willie Wood (NFL) during the 1968 riots on the U Street corridor.

Judge Luke Moore and Redskins LB Harold McLinton (Santa), WR Roy Jefferson and Hall of Fame LB Dave Robinson play Santa’s Helpers for needy children.

DC’s first black chief Burtell Jefferson meets Top Cop Sgt Earl ‘Bull’ Bell

Luke was later appointed as a judge for the DC Superior Court and maintained his relationship with Kids In Trouble and Inside Sports. During the late 60s.  I was a youth gang task force member with the DC Department of Recreation and Parks Roving Leader Program.  DC’s first Black Mayor Walter Washington appointed former New York City Police Chief Patrick Murphy as his Public Safety Director in 1967.  I was one of the Roving Leaders assigned to meet with Mr. Murphy once a month to discuss a strategy to overcome our gang problem.

Patrick Murphy is the “Godfather” of Police Community Relations in America.

Politico Magazine in 2014 published an article titled “PG County the Ferguson Next Door.” The article is about the lessons we should have learned from PG County’s History of Police Brutality (one of the worst in the country).  In 2007 a young black man who was arrested for the hit and run death of a PG cop was found hung in his cell in a Upper Marlboro jail (on Chief Melvin High’s watch).

I was overjoyed that my friend Federal Judge Alex Williams a regular on Inside Sports and a member of the Board of Directors of KIT was the sitting judge.  He sentenced the jail guard to a year in jail for conspiracy.  The real killers are still on the loose.  In 2017 two PG County cops appeared on Fox 5 News wearing a hood talking about the rampant racism in the PG County Police Department. Several months later another PG County cop appeared on NBC TV 4 news echoing the same concerns.

Former Federal Judge Alex Williams participant in a KIT Forum

The Chief Hank Stawinski claims “There are no racial problems in his department and requested the two officers to bring their complaints to him!” Fat chance, if these officers are scared of their own colleagues what chance do we have as black residents in the county and in this country?   In 2016 I wrote an open letter and send it Priority Mail requesting a signature to Gov. Larry Hogan. My complain “Cowboy Cops” patrolling the streets harassing residents in packs of threes. I also challenged him to go to the Upper Marlboro Court House on any given Monday morning (Under Cover Boss). I suggested he sit in traffic court and count the number of blacks vs whites (8-1). I never received a response. His office confirmed he had received my letter.

Governor Larry Hogan–the buck stops at the top.  No light at the end of the tunnel.

I also emailed Pastor John Jenkins of First Baptist Church of Glen Arden and asked him for his support, his response, “Dear Brother Bell, I feel your frustration, but I am in contact with our Chief of Police and our States Attorney and we are going to work through this.  We must pray and keep the faith.”

Later two poorly trained cops were shot by a resident while trying to serve a warrant on the wrong home. Have we forgotten this same scenario took place in Tennessee several years ago where a husband and wife were watching the evening news on television in their home when police broke down the door in a raid of their home only to discover too late they had the wrong apartment!  They were met with gun fire from the husband John Adams who was shot and killed.  The white officers were 24 and 25 years old.  Mr. Adams was 61 and black.  A jury not representing the black community consisted of eleven whites and one black.  No surprise they acquitted the white Lt. Steve Nokes who led the raid and the two white cops walked away free men to kill again.

Lets fast forward to Dallas, Texas and Renee Hall the black chief of police who claims she cannot fire officer Amber Guyger after she shot and killed 26 year old Botham Jean in his own apartment.  He was unarmed—I will bet you Chief Hall has been brain washed with “It’s us against them” mentality. The next time a cop tells how dangerous their job is remind him or her they volunteered and they were not drafted for the job.

It is amazing how silent the politicians, ministers and community advocates have become during these tubulent times of police shootings of unarmed black men in our community.  It makes you wonder what Pastor Jenkins is talking about with the Governor, Chief and States Attorney?  We can measure if a change is going to come when our New County Executive Angela Alsobrooks takes office in November 2017.  Her top priority should be to change at the top of the PG County police department (the change was made in 2020).   If there is no change–things will remain the same and the cops will keep shooting and we will keep ducking!