Former Style section writer John Walsh of the Washington Post was bankrolled by billionaire newspaper owner Katherine Graham to hijack Inside Sports to
New York City.  It was there he published “Inside Sports Magazine” which failed after 33 issues.  Newsweek owns the Copy Rights to “Inside Sports” and the Washington Post owed Newsweek.  Earlier this year Walsh retired from ESPN and Katherine Graham died in 2001. Remember, this is the same newspaper that called President Richard M. Nixon a crook—what is the difference?

When the legendary radio and television talk show host Petey Greene gave me five minutes to talk sports on WOL Radio in the late 60s, he planted the seed for Inside Sports.  I had no idea where this opportunity would lead me and neither did he.  The opportunity will lead me to co-hosting a sports talk show on Saturday at 12 noon with the No. 1 DJ in the country, WOL’s Bobby Bennett.  Bobby was a “Closet” wannabe sportscaster.  I parlayed that opportunity into hosting my own radio sports talk show on W-O-O-K Radio one year later–the birth place of Inside Sports.  The movie portraying Petey “Lets talk” never did him or his family and friends justice.  The determining factors—selfishness and greed.

There were no black own radio or television outlets in DC in the 60s and 70s including WHUR (paid for and supported by the Federal Government).  The stations were “Black Oriented,” and sounded black but white owned.  I remember, I was contemplating the format for my new talk show at dinner one evening when I asked my wife Hattie “What should I call my new show” and without hesitation, she said ‘Inside Sports!’  I was blown away because the show title fit.  I put my fork down and asked “How did you come up with that title?”  Her response,  ‘You get the behind scenes news on the athletes before the TV news and newspapers.’  She made sense to me and in 1971 Inside Sports hit the airwaves for the first time in American media history.  On hand and in studio for my first show was Hattie and Attorney Derrick Humphries. From the very beginning Derrick advised me to Trademark the name Inside Sports but I was not listening, I was in another World (ego trip).

For the next decade, the one of a kind Inside Sports talk show would take DC by storm. The show made me the first black to host and produce his own radio sports talk show in the Nation’s Capitol.  It was one of a kind, I was Out Side the Lines, Real Sports long before ESPN & HBO.  The guests were top of the line, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Red Auerbach, Don King, Doctor J, Bert Sugar and the list goes on and on.  Inside Sports was the first sports talk show to discuss racism on and off the field of play (front office), the first to play message music (Wake Up Everybody, What’s Going On, Someday We Will be Free, Black & Proud, Respect Yourself, etc.).   The first to establish sports media round-tables, first to write commentaries on any and everything to enhance the growth of black people in America.  The show was the first to encourage pro athletes, politicians and entertainers to participate in community outreach programs.  Inside Sports and Kids In Trouble cared long before the NBA, NFL and MLB.

DC native and NBA Hall of Fame player, Dave Bing salutes Kids In Trouble’s Hillcrest Saturday Program basketball All-Stars.  In 1972 NFL Films tape first ever community service promo for national television at Hillcrest.  The emphasis was on water safety with Washington pro football players, Larry Brown (MVP-RB) and Harold McLinton (LB). 

In the 70s I was the only talk show host in the District, Maryland and Virginia buying time from the radio stations and paying them and not vice-versa.  I controlled what was heard on the airwaves, unheard of today.  Most sports’ talk show host today are entertainers (clowns and cheerleaders), they wear earplugs that are plugged into the control room and are told what to say and not to say.  Michael Wilbon (ESPN via Washington Post) claimed on national television that it was all right to use the N word as long as you are among friends and family.  He had proudly told me he was not going on ESPN’s Outside the Lines to discuss the use of the word, because the white host didn’t have a horse in the race.  The following Sunday who is front and center on Outside the Lines, Michael Wilbon.  He has young children and has not stop to think he is teaching another generation of blacks to use the N word.

In the meantime, my studio guest also included, the Washington Post sports editor George Solomon, and his writers, Dave Dupree, Byron Rosen, Tom Callahan, Donald Huff, Dave Kindred, Leonard Shapiro, Michael Wibon, and Dave Aldridge.  The Washington Post went on the air with their own television sports talk show in the late 70s, I was a frequent guest.  While I am making sports media history, the Washington Post’s brain trust were scheming on how to get paid with my title Inside Sports.  The brain trust would include, the mom and son team, owners Katherine and Don Graham, their side kick sports editor “Devious”George, and a fraudulent Style section writer by the name of John Walsh.  Walsh left the Washington Post for New York City in 1977 with the financial blessings of the Grahams and published Inside Sports Magazine.  It was not like I was a stranger to Don Graham or Solomon—it all had to do with greed and no-respect.  I knew Don when we both worked the mean streets of DC, he was a cop and I was a Roving Leader (Youth Gang Task Force) for the DC Recreation Department.   His mother Katherine pulled the plug on his law-enforcement career.  She asked him to resign and turn in his gun and badge for a three piece suit at the newspaper.  Here they could stick-up the community without a gun.

Don and I had an open door policy.  If  I thought the paper was short-changing the black community in its coverage, I would contact him.  We often disagreed, but we agreed to disagree.  But he totally blindsided me when he conspired with his mom, Solomon and Walsh to take my Inside Sports show title and make it their very own.  I understand that no one is playing fair but I thought he had a little more integrity then Solomon, but they say “Birds of a Feather Flock Together.”  I overlooked all the warning signs that something was not right.  In several of his notes to me after making donations to Kids In Trouble, he kept using the catch phrase, “Anonymous please!”  I figured he and his mother were trying to hide something, never thinking he was stabbing me in my back and hijacking me for Inside Sports.

In November 1982, after three years and 33 issues, Inside Sports magazine was shut down.  The abrupt ending dealt a hard blow to Walsh, the man who had personally persuaded legendary Washington Post Chairman Katherine Graham and her son Don to financially support the magazine.

My first encounter with Walsh was at an NBA All-Star media luncheon in Houston, Texas.  NBA broadcaster and playground basket legend Sonny Hill and I were seated at the same table with “Mr. Inside Sports,” when I spotted his name tag with Inside Sports on it.  I immediately got up and headed toward Walsh when Sonny got up and blocked my path and said, “Let it go” and I did.  It is a decision I now regret.

Meet the other half of the Hijack Dream Team of Inside Sports: Kathy’s little boy Don Graham and sports editor George Solomon.

I remember coordinating a Black History Month tribute to NBA pioneer Earl Lloyd on Bolling Air Force in February 1998.  I discovered that the Washington Post sports department was ignoring my press release on the event.  According to my “Deep Throat” source in the newsroom, George Solomon told his writers to ignore the tribute.  After the successful tribute was over I contacted Don letting him know my displeasure with Solomon and his underhand tactics to sabotage the tribute.  You can see his response above saying,

“Dear Mr Bell, nice to hear from you.  The Post should have covered the reception at Bolling.  George says he simply did not know about it at the time.

                                             Best, Don Graham

Sam Jones (NBA), James Brown (CBS), HBell (Inside Sports), the late Earl Lloyd (NBA). 1998 Black History Month tribute at Bolling AFB  

When I discovered that Solomon and Walsh were the thieves of my title Inside Sports, I tried to distant my self from the Inside Sports Magazine.  I changed the title of my show to “The Original Inside Sports.”  My grandmother had given me some of the best advice I have ever had.  While growing up in her house she taught us and prepared us on how to deal with situations like this.  One day she called me aside and said, ‘Grandson I don’t know what life wholes for you in the future, but I want you to remember one thing.  I want you to always tell the truth, because a lie will change a thousand times, but the truth never changes.’

Its too bad that Don Graham, George Solomon and John Walsh’s grandmothers didn’t give them some of that same advice.   It looks like they were taught to take any thing they wanted.  I sucked it up despite my disappointment and my lawyer telling me I could still get some nuisance money, by taking Walsh to court.  I had proof, I was the first to use the title (newspaper stories, tape recordings of my show, etc.) but I passed.  Money does not make you smart, Graham, Solomon and Walsh are the best examples.  As I am trying to distant myself from Inside Sports Magazine with my new show title “The Original Inside Sports.” I get a tip to google Walsh from my inside source “Deep Throat” at the Washington Post.  I pulled up Walsh’s bio and discovered that he was now claiming that he was the founding editor of The Original Inside Sports Magazine (1979-82).  Now this is a case of being greedy and not leaving well enough alone.  He is not only a thief but he is a greedy thief and a liar (he wanted the credit for everything spelled Inside Sports).  I was going to go along to get along until I read his ESPN bio.   It has since been deleted from his bio because I called him out, but I printed the page for safe keeping and proof.  John Walsh is a fraud in every sense of the word.

My “Deep Throat” source at the Washington Post made me aware of how Donald Graham and George Solomon were willing participants in the charade.  I was also told to checkout who own the Copy Rights to Inside Sports.  Walsh’s bio read, he held a number of editorial positions at Newsweek (1970-73).  Newsweek owns the Copy Rights to Inside Sports and the Washington Post once owned Newsweek.  These guys left a trail that Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder could follow, but you have to give them credit, when they steal they steal Big.  The system even made up a name for this kind of thievery—“White Collar Crime!”  

With further research I found out that George Solomon was on the ESPN payroll as its first ombudsman.  This was his pay-off from John Walsh for helping him hijack Inside Sports.  According to Webster’s 7th New Collegiate Dictionary, an ombudsman is someone who investigates complaints made by individuals who cite abuses or capricious acts by a company’s employees.  Solomon had his work cut out for him because there were on-going complaints that ESPN writers working for Walsh were accused of plagiarism (copying other writers stories and making them their own). Solomon swept the accusations under the rug and moved on to Maryland University.

I feel sorry for the late legendary Washington Post sports columnist Shirley Povich, a man of integrity.  He was a sports media pioneer in equal rights on the playing field, in the press rooms and at the press tables in America.  Mr. Povich must be turning over in his grave when he sees a hypocrite like George Solomon leading the charge at Maryland University as the first Director of The Shirley Povich School of Sports Journalism with several dubious members on the faculty.

I remember just before Solomon retired from the paper we bumped into each other in the press room at a Wizard’s game.  He invited me to come down to the paper and have a “Spot of tea” with him.  This was a strange request because we had not spoken in several years.  It was also strange because we had become friends/associates over the years.  He had become a frequent contributor on Inside Sports in and out of the studio.  One year he called-into my show while he was across the pond covering The Wimbledon Tennis Tournament.  He was a regular donor for the KIT toy party for needy children and he was a participant in my annual Inside Sports Celebrity Tennis Tournaments. He even allowed me to write several freelance columns for the sports department.  In other words, I could count on George Solomon.  I did join him for a ‘Spot of tea’ in his office several days later but the conversation went nowhere, he wanted to talk about my relationship with John Thompson, Jr. and there was no relationship to talk about.

George Solomon, Jim ‘Bad News’ Barnes, HBell and Donnie Simpson

In 2012 a column written in “Dead Spin Magazine” two different journalism students at the University of Maryland confirmed the allegations: ‘that Walsh—the living, beating heart of ESPN’s news gathering operation—told their class that Deadspin’s coverage of ESPN’s serial plagiarist Lynn Hoppes was a vendetta caused by Hoppes having stolen the writer’s girlfriend (John Koblin).  It had nothing to do with Hoppes having blatantly copied and pasted material from Wikipedia in his work for ESPN. A ‘romantic rivalry.” A love triangle was the reason the column was written,’ according to Walsh.  In the column for Dead Spin, writer Koblin denies the love triangle, but he points out, ‘All along, the defining feature of the Hoppes case has been ESPN’s shamelessness. There was the weird obviousness of the plagiarism itself, right under the nose of Walsh, who’d brought impeccable credentials—managing editor of Rolling Stone in its heyday, founding editor of Inside Sports (also copied)—to the network’s news operation.  And then came the weird stonewalling, as ESPN’s news division simply refused to correct or publicly punish what would have been retraction-and-firing stuff in most major news organizations.’

ESPN would become “Graduate School” for the writers of the Washington Post sport’s department.  The parade to ESPN would include Tony Cornhiser, Michael Wilbon, Dave Aldridge, and countless others that included Solomon’s son and columnist Colbert King’s son.  In 2007 King had promised to write a column on two DC legends, NFL Hall of Fame player Willie Wood and the legendary One Arm Bandit, Gary Mays.  King attended Dunbar HS when Gary and Willie were attending Armstrong HS.  The two schools existed directly across the street from each other. In 2007 there was a benefit tribute being planned in Willie’s honor to help pay some of his nursing home bills, he was showing signs of early dementia.  The special guest included his former Green Bay Packer teammates, Bart Starr (QB), Paul Hornung (RB), Boyd Dowler (WR), Willie Davis (DE).  The great Jim Brown, Charlie Taylor, Lance Alworth and the late John Mackey (TE) were also in attendance.  King went back on his word and never followed up on the story.  I figured it out, it had to do with his son’s ties to ESPN.  Despite the deception by King and others in media they can never change the fact, The Original Inside Sports changed the way we talk and report sports in America.  Every radio and television sports talk show format in America is a copy of Inside Sports.  My wife Hattie’s timely title Inside Sports is now used all over the World.

Green Bay Packer (RB) and NFL Hall of Fame player Paul Hornung offer words of encouragement to his former teammate Willie Wood at a tribute in his honor.

The benefactors of Inside Sports and Kids In Trouble reads like a Who’s Who, Dave Aldridge (TNT), Jim Brown (NFL), James Brown (CBS), Dave Bing (NBA), Tim Baylor (NFL), Kevin Blackistone (ESPN), Jamie Foster Brown (Sister 2 Sister), Adrian Branch (NBA), Adrian Dantley (NBA), Bobby Gardner, (NFL) Jo Jo Hunter (NBA), Darryl Hill (ACC), Grant Hill (NBA), Cathy Hughes (Radio & TV One), Dave Jacobs (Boxing), Don King (Boxing), Jair Lynch (Olympian), Sugar Ray Leonard (Boxing), Earl Lloyd (NBA), Butch McAdams (Radio One), Oden Polyniece (NBA), Tony Paige (NFL), Aaron Pryor (Boxing), Bill Rhoden (NY Times), John Thompson (GT), Omar Tyree (Author), Chris Thomas (BET), Mike Wilbon (ESPN), Doug Williams (NFL), Willie Wood (NFL)

Thanks to Kids In Trouble and Inside Sports hundreds of inner-city children have been able to take their education to the next level without selling drugs.  There were forty-five years of Christmas toys for tots parties without the benefit of grants or loans. The toy part touched thousands of elementary school children in the DMV.  The doctors, lawyers, teachers and Indian Chiefs who benefited from our good works are too many to count.  The millionaires who came through the programs before their 15 minutes of fame when they didn’t have two brown pennies to rub together.  You will need both of your hands and all ten fingers to count them (see roll-call above).  Gwen Thompson the ex-wife of Georgetown coach John Thompson, Jr. donated $50,000 to Kids In Trouble thanks to a divorce settlement she received from the first black coach to win a NCAA Championship.  Big John was hiding behind trees threatening her with bodily harm when she was filing for divorce.  Gwen asked her attorney to call me so I could tell her where all the hidden skeletons were in his closet.  I armed her with enough information that the last place John Thompson wanted to be was inside a courtroom.   He gladly settled out of court.  Sugar Ray Leonard another kid in trouble became the first pro boxer to earn $100 million.  This is a direct quote from him made during a radio interview on Inside Sports after his big win over Felix Trinidad, he said, “Harold, I am the Welterweight Champion of the World because you were there when no one else was.”  Where is the beef?         

I am amazed when blacks are often heard saying, “White folks don’t like black folks.”  Nothing could be further from the truth, white folks love black people.  The problem, black folks don’t like themselves!  For example, Suntan lotion is a billion dollar industry, who do you thing are the consumers?  Plastic surgery is a trillion-dollar industry because big butts, big lips, big noses are in.  They have taken over soul music (Oldie But Goodies aka Do Wop).  The Oldie But Goodie concerts are more popular than the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus.  Tickets prices start at $100 and up.  The audiences are overwhelmingly white.  Have you tried getting into a soul food restaurant or tried to get your clothes cleaned at black cleaners or laundry lately?  Check out a mall anywhere in America and see who are the jewelry vendors, one guess, they are not Jewish or blacks.  We can’t even get down in a ditch on a construction site or hold a sign that says “Stop or Go!”  We built this country and now the 1% is pissed off because we refuse to work for slave wages.

You can be a witness in our everyday lives and see their actions of brutality, it has nothing to do with hate and everything to do with envy and jealousy.   The acts of police brutality is rooted in police departments all over this country.  The KKK started the Code of Silence and the Thin Blue Line.  They were established to protect white Sheriffs and cops who brutalized black folks.  They hid behind the Thin Blue Line and Code of Silence to protect them, today’s black cops have been brainwashed into thinking “Its us against them.”  White cops have been brutalizing black folks across America long before Rodney King, Trayvon Martin (killed by a wannabe cop), Eric Gardner, Mike Brown, the couple in Cleveland whose car was riddled with one-hundred and sixty-five bullets fired by the Cleveland Police Department because the couple’s car back-fired.  When the car was finally pulled over, one cop jumped on the hood and empties his revolver into the car.  He went to trial and was found not guilty.  Lets go back to Cleveland for a minute and remember the 12 year-old black kid shot down in cold blood without warning, because he was in the park playing with a toy gun.  The next move is to the riots in Baltimore and on to Charleston, S.C. where in June 2015 a white 21-year-old racist walks into a Bible Study class and opens fire killing nine black adults–this was not an act of hate.  This was an act of learned behavior by some envy and jealous adults.  Have you forgotten “Black Wall Street?”   Do you remember, when the white media came down hard on President Obama and the First lady for celebrating on national television after the election with a “Fist Bump?” They have since taken over the ritual of the ‘High Five and Fist Bump.’  My favorite musical message played on The Original Inside Sports, was the classic vocal by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, “Wake Up Everybody.”  We are evidently, still asleep if you believe that white folks hate us.  The solution to this madness, is to love ourselves and to stand for something instead of falling for just anything.

Media Notes: Former TV 7 anchor Paul Berry got the idea for 7 On Your Side from his guest appearance on Inside Sports and now every television station in America has a Consumer Protection Program.  Check to see how many TV stations had these programs before Paul started his on TV 7.

Charles Hall a veteran sports writer for the Spokesman-Recorder in Minnesota says “Nothing has changed at Deadline in media press rooms in the Twin-Cities.” http://spokesman-recorder.com/whites-still-rule-newspapers-sports-reporting/

There is a long list of public servants in the black community who give unselfishly of their time trying to make a better way for our youth–meet Bobby Lee.

The home going services for Bobby Lee on June 4, 2015 was truly a celebration of life for a truly a remarkable man.  He was a native Washingtonian, and grew up in the NE corridor of East Capitol and 49th Streets NE.  Bobby was a product of the DC Public school system and graduated from Armstrong High School.  He was a member of the basketball and swim teams.  Armstrong has a glorious tradition of great teams and great athletes who include, NFL great Avatus Stone (Syracuse All-American) and NFL Hall of Fame inductees Len Ford and Bobby’s basketball teammate Willie Wood.

He honed his basketball skills at the legendary Kelly Miller playground, the playground of legends.  No crybabies were allowed.  It did not matter whether you played football, basketball or baseball—grown men only.  I would walk from Parkside to the Kelly Miller Basketball court on the weekends. We didn’t have a basketball court in the neighborhood so I walked to Kelly Miller.  This was where the action was and it was where I wanted to be.  Basketball was the No. 1 game on the playground, baseball with the great Playground Director, Kiyi Battle was a close second.  The playground legends that emerged from Kelly Miller are too many to mention, I know I would leave someone out.  Many were legends in their own time and others were legends in their own minds.  Dave Bing went from a crybaby to the NBA Hall of Fame.  He earned his wings at Kelly Miller the hard way.

Bobby and Furman Marshall were home-grown talent who could hold their own on the basketball court, but would later become legendary Black Belt Martial Arts artist.  The two earned their black belts at the same time and would spend their adult lives as youth advocates and helping the elderly.

Bobby Lee was a man’s man, he served in the U. S. Army from 1960-1962, in the 1st Calvary Division.  He was station at Fort Jackson, S. C., Fort Benning, Ga.   He was a squad leader, earned the sharp shooter’s badge.  His military occupation specialty was heavy weapons, mortars and recoilless rifles.  During a period of time when racial tensions were high in the military he did not hesitate to stand up for equal treatment for himself, as well as other black troops.  Because of his stand against racism in all forms changes were made to improve the quality of life for himself and other black soldiers.  It was while serving in Korea he was introduced to the Martial Arts and eventually became a 3rd degree Black Belt.   Furman would go on to become a Grand Master and be inducted into the Martial Arts Hall of Fame.  Their work in the DMZ with youth would become legendary and second to none.

Bobby shared his martial arts skills with many.  He found one of the area’s first martial arts training centers, Scorpions, in the basement of his home in Landover, Md. As the club grew he moved it to Pepper Mill Rec Center in Seat Pleasant, Md.  There he taught many students, neighbors and family members martial arts.  He is the recipient of many awards including the United Head of Family Martial Arts Association International Hall of Champions award, the Mixed Martial Arts: Head Founder of Honors Award. And the Martial Arts Pioneer Award.

Jhon Rhee The Godfather of martial arts in DC—-“Nobody bothers me”

Bobby was also passionate about swimming.  He taught swimming in his backyard pool and found a swim club which competed with other swim clubs locally.  He became a mentor and role model for many children in the neighborhood, especially, for many young black men who did not have positive male role models in their lives.

Up until the time of his passing, he was still a role model and mentor for many friends and family.  Anyone who had the pleasure to meet Bobby Lee could feel his magnetism, he loved people.  If you didn’t like him, you didn’t like yourself.

Bobby and I were always connected from the playgrounds, to the work place and to his family.  His first wife Shirley Cross and I were in the same class at Spingarn High School.  She was always a lady and class act (honor student).  I spoke with her after the funeral, we remembered the good old days, she said, “Even though Bobby and I were divorced we remained good friends.  He was a great father to our only son, Barry.”  I expected nothing less.

Frank Smith one his closest friends reminded me that it was Bobby who got him his first job after he got out of the Army in 1962.  Bobby was the only black employee working for a NASA contractor named Documentation, Inc. The company was located in Bethesda, Maryland.  I followed Frank to the job during the summer of 1963 and not far behind was Robert Cephas, Charlie Jones, Roscoe Brown, Ronnie Bruce, Donald Brown, and Big Melvin Jones.  We had our own All-Star Basketball team.  DC guys took over and folks started to call us “Documentation DC North.”  We owed it all to Bobby Lee.

In 1969 Bobby married my neighbor from back in the day, the love of his life Maureen Turner.  From this union in 1972 they were blessed with Eric and in 1975 there was another baby boy they named Jonathan.  Bobby and Maureen were very active in playing sports together and enjoyed traveling.  You could often find them on any given Friday night over at Maureen’s parent’s house bonding with her siblings and enjoying time with the Turners.  Whether it was swimming in Bobby and Maureen’s pool, partying down in their basement, or in their backyard, they enjoyed having family and friends over.

I can say truly “We are family” without having to crash the party (Home Going)!

The Turners and Bells grew up together in a NE Housing project called Parkside in the early 50s.  The Turners lived on Barnes Street and we lived right around the corner on Kenilworth Terrace.  Their next door neighbors were the Johnsons, Sonny, Dan, Jake and a sister whose name escapes me.  I remember having to walk by their house on the way to the playground and Mickey the oldest brother would come out to join us to play whatever the game was chosen for that day.  Mickey was as fast as lighting–he could run.

There were some great athletes that came out of Parkside.  First, the greatest all-around athlete was former Los Angeles Dodger’s base stealing great, Maury ‘Sonny’ Wills.  He came from a family of great athletes that lived on Kenilworth Avenue.

When I encountered Cecil Turner (Maureen’s brother) outside the church, reflections of Parkside came rushing back.  Cecil went on to have an outstanding career as a wide receiver and kick-off return man for the NFL Chicago Bears.  It was here he reminded me of how I played a minor role in his development as an athlete.  He said “Harold, you got me started in football at the Parkside Rec Center.  I remember, one day you guys were short on players and you choose me to fill in.  And I got baptized under fire.” 

HB and Cecil at the Lorton Reformatory Complex

THE GREATEST WILT CHAMBERLAIN

THE GREAT MICHAEL JORDAN AND THE GREAT LABRON JAMES

As we head into the 2015 NBA Finals, there still seems to be some doubt when it comes to the question of the greatest NBA player in the history of the game?  Let me make it perfectly clear from the very beginning.  The greatest NBA player ever, should be measured by what he did to change how the game is played today!  He should not be measured by how many NBA titles, how many scoring titles, how many rebounding titles, how many assist titles, triple doubles titles, MVP awards  or how many 100 point games he had during his NBA career.

The irony of all those stats, there is only one player who can lay claim to winning in every statistical category—Wilt Chamberlain.

Wilt holds numerous NBA records in scoring, rebounding and durability categories. He is the only player to score 100 points in a single NBA game or average more than 40 and 50 points in a season. He also won seven scoring, nine field goal percentage, and eleven rebounding titles, and led the league in assist once.  He is the only player in NBA history to average at least 30 points and 20 rebounds per game in a season, a feat he accomplished nine times. He is also the only player to average at least 30 points and 20 rebounds per game over the entire course of his NBA career.  I am still trying to figure out, “Where is the beef?  Some have said, ‘Harold he was bigger and taller then everyone else!’  Give me a break, there have been dozens of 7 foot plus NBA players pass through the league and none resembled Wilt, and that includes Russell, Kareem or Shack.

I further understand if some of you NBA experts never got to see Wilt play and are only experts during the Michael Jordan and LaBron James eras (my sincere apologies go out to Kobe fans that he is not a part of this conversation).

My advantage and expertise lies in the fact that I have been honored to see all three up close and personal.  Its Wilt hands down.

Wilt Chamberlain was so over-powering the NBA had to change the rules so that everyone else would have an equal chance to compete against him.  First, they raised the basket, next they widen the lane and finally made it mandatory that a player could only stay in the lane under the basket for three seconds.  “The hack a Shack” was established long before Shack O’Neil arrived in the NBA.  Wilt will go down as one of the NBA’s worst free throw shooters ever.  Once coaches and players discovered his Achilles Heel, ‘The Hack A Wilt’ was born.  And that is how you measure GREATNESS in the NBA.

There were times Wilt suffered a long string of professional losses, still he  had a successful career, winning two NBA championships four regular-season Most Valuable Player awards, the Rookie of the Year award, one NBA Finals MVP award, and being selected to 13 All-Star Games and ten All-NBA First and Second teams.  Wilt was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978, elected into the NBA’s 35th Anniversary Team of 1980, and chosen as one of the 50 Greatest in NBA History in 1996.

I remember in an interview with the great Sam Jones of the Boston Celtics saying, “Wilt could have been as greater defensive player as my teammate Bill Russell if he wanted to!”  Wilt committed surprisingly few fouls during his NBA career, despite the rugged play in the post. Wilt never fouled out of a regular season or playoff game in his 14-year NBA career. His career average was only two fouls per game, despite having averaged 45.8 minutes per game over his career. He had five seasons where he committed less than two fouls per game, with a career low of 1.5 fouls during the 1962 season, in which he also averaged 50.4 points per game. His fouls per 36 minutes (a stat used to compare players that average vastly different minutes) was a remarkable 1.6 per game.

“First he was a scorer. Then he was a rebound and assist man. Then with our great Laker team in 1972, he concentrated on the defensive end,” said Coach Bill Sharman.  Sharman’s words echo Sam Jones.

There was recent talk of Michael Jordan at the age of 52 could beat LaBron James if they met one on one today, that would be a great match-up with both in the prime of their careers.  But under no circumstances could either of them beat Wilt in the prime of his career.  Wilt was a great all- around athlete, he ran the 100-yard dash in 10.9 seconds, shot-putted 56 feet, triple jumped more than 50 feet, and won the high jump in the Big Eight track and field championships three straight years.

He was nobody’s dummy he was an honor roll student in high school, but his smartest move in sports was when he turned down a challenge to fight The Greatest, Muhammad Ali for 5 million dollars.

Philadelphia basketball legends Sonny Hill, Earl ‘The Pearl’ Monroe and me at the Memorial Service honoring Wilt in Philly 

I first met Wilt when he was a freshman at the University of Kansas.  He came to DC to visit former Cardozo High School football, track and field star David Harris who was his roommate.  Dave had arranged for Wilt to play against DC playground legend and future NBA Hall of Fame player Elgin Baylor.  The pick-up game would be played at Kelly Miller playground in NE DC.  The game is now folklore in the annals of DC playground basketball, especially, with those who claim they were there when the game took place.  Every time the story is told hundreds more are added to the attendance roll.  I was officially there, because when Dave pulled up in Wilt’s blood-red convertible caddilac, he threw me the keys and told me to park it somewhere safe.   The next time I met Wilt, I was with Philadelphia native son, my media mentor and friend, Sonny Hill aka ‘Mr. Basketball.’  We were at Wilt’s house for a party after a summer league basketball game in the city of Brotherly Love.

I last spoke with Wilt when he was on his book tour with the stories of how he had managed to have slept with 20,000 women.  I knew Carl Greene as a Winston-Salem State University alumnus and we became good friends during homecomings and his visits to the CIAA Tournament.  Carl was a dear friend of Wilt’s, they were teammates with the Harlem Globetrotters.  I discovered that Wilt was going to be in Arlington, Virginia for a book signing, I thought this would a great opportunity to invite him on Inside Sports.  Carl contacted him and he agreed.

The Saturday evening before the show it rained “Cats and Dogs!”   Wilt called to say “Harold, I am stuck over here in Virginia, can I get a rain-check for the show.  No pud intended, I will make it up to you?”  He never did, he died shortly there after.

Wilt died of congestive heart failure on October 9, 1999 in Bel-Air California he was 63 years old.  In September a memorial service was held in his honor in his hometown of Philadelphia.   I was there with a Who’s Who of the NBA, and playground basketball legends, all who came to celebrate the life of a hometown legend and icon.

In the final analyst, can someone name me one game changing rule Michael Jordan or LaBron James was responsible for?  Wilt’s work speaks volumes.  Any further discussions comparing Jordan or James to Wilt will be out of bounds. RIP big fellow.

AL ATTLES AND STEPHAN CURRY SHARE AN NBA WEST TITLE, A LAUGH AND HANDSHAKE

K C Jones and assistant Bernie Bickerstaff are seen on the bench trying to figure out what was going on.  In the meantime, Attles is seen below during a time out telling  Warrior guard Phil Smith “Don’t stop running!”                                                                       Sam Jones  

(NBA) Al Attles, Sam Jones and K C Jones join (NFL player) Roy Jefferson as Santa’s Helpers for the annual Kids In Trouble Christmas toy drive for needy children.

The sweep by the Warriors would cost K. C. Jones his job thanks to the “Monday Morning Quarterbacks” including Pulitzer Prize winning columnist the late Bill Raspberry of the Washington Post.  He was quoted in his column saying, “K. C. Jones and the Washington Bullets were out hustled, out played and out coached!”  Now I have seen Raspberry play basketball up close and personal and I was surprised by his arm chair analysis of a great NBA player and coach.  Bill hardly knew the difference between a left hook and a hook shot. But he got two out of three right.  The Bullets may have been out hustled and out played but never out coached.  It didn’t help that K. C. had an ambitious assistant coach in Bernie Bickerstaff who was stabbing him in the back at every opportunity.  He gave owner Abe Polin and GM Bob Ferry the ammunition needed to fire K. C. the following year.

 HBell (32), Ollie Johnson, Dewy Hughes and Bill Raspberry (24) participate in a charity basketball game for Kids In Trouble at Georgetown University

Bickerstaff was telling everyone that he was the one really calling the shots and making basketball decisions during the season.  Yes, he could be seen during the timeouts giving instructions to the players, but only after conferring with K. C.  There was nothing insecure about K. C. Jones when it came to playing the game or coaching it.  He was a successful all around athlete in college at the University of San Francisco with teammate, Bill Russell. He was drafted by the NFL (defensive back) and the NBA, he chose the NBA where he now resides in the Hall of Fame.  Bernie was not only ambitious but he was also insecure with too many skeletons in his closet.

In 1976 the Bullets brought Dave Bing home from Detroit to see if he could provide a spark to take the Bullets back to the finals, but it didn’t happen. He spend the next two seasons with the Bullets.  He was named to the NBA All-Star game once more in 1976, this time winning the game’s MVP Award.  But he was just a shell of the great Dave Bing I knew.  Dave’s arrival could not save K. C.’s job with the Bullets and from our conversation I am not sure he wanted to.   Shortly after his arrival we were having lunch in his apartment off of Branch Avenue in Prince Georges County, Maryland.  We talked about what was wrong with the Bullets and his observation almost knocked me out of my chair.  He said ” First, K. C. is a drunk!”

My response, “Dave, K. C. has enough respect for you, he would have no problem with sitting down with you to talk about what was needed to improve team play and morale.”  He said, ‘Harold I think it is too late.’  K.C. was fired shortly after.

Earl ‘The Pearl’ Monroe goes one on one with Bing as a Washington Bullet.  Dave retired as a Boston Celtic in 1978.

Dick Motta was hired and he took the Wizards to the 1978 NBA finals and beat a great Seattle Super Sonic team coached by Lenny Wilkins in seven games.  I wanted to root for the black coach, but I could not, I remembered the sweep by the Golden State Warriors like it was yesterday.

 The owner of the Washington Bullets/Wizards the late Abe Polin hugs Wes Unseld after the Bullets beat the Seattle for the NBA Championship. “The Fat Lady” had finally sung for the organization.

HBell, Red Auerbach and K. C. Jones out on the town 

K. C. Jones is one of the most successful player/coaches in the NBA, second only to teammate Bill Russell.   As a player he help win 8 NBA Championships as a Boston Celtic.  He was an assistant coach on 2 NBA Championship Celtic teams.  And he was the head coach on 2 NBA Championship Celtic teams, 1983-84 and 1985-86 NBA seasons.  He lost in the finals of the 84-85 season.  This was all after he was fired by the Washington Bullets and given a second chance by his former coach and mentor, the great Arnold ‘Red’ Auerbach.

Al Attles longevity with the Golden State Warriors as a player/coach/administrator is second to none.  The best way to describe his NBA longevity is to quote former Warrior coach and now NBA television color analyst Mark Jackson, “Mama there goes that man again.”

NBA Note Worthy Monday Morning QB:

Congratulations to the Washington Wizards for an outstanding season. They were definitely the better team in the East but the injury to starting guard John Wall was definitely a setback.  I think a match-up with Cleveland they would have stood a 50-50 chance of winning the series.  Their only problem in the Atlanta series was not just losing Wall, but their BIG men disappeared, Goitar and Nene.  The Wizards had the deepest and most talented bench in the NBA (Cleveland was a close second), but was Mismanaged by Coach Randy Wittman.  There is no way Chris Humphries their most consistent big man should have been on the bench the entire play-offs.  And I thought the trade of Andre Miller back fired, he could have been the calm during the storm.  Otto Porter’s improvement was off the charts and Paul Pierce for Mayor, “Wait until Next year.”   

JIM VANCE YESTERDAY AND TODAY 

Photo 1) Back to Hollywood salute to actor/producer Robert Hooks Photo 2) Tribute to Ohio State local athletes Cornelius Greene, Lenny Willis and Woodrow Roach.  Special guest Coach Woody Hayes and Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin. Photo 3) Washington Bullets star guard Wesley Mathews models as the late great WHUR Radio DJ Melvin Lindsey (The Original Quiet Storm) and Jim Vance co-host KIT fashion show 

Photo 1) Jim Vance and HBell mentor students at the Roy Jefferson NFL Reading Center in NW DC Photo 2) Kids In Trouble annual toy drive, Santa’s Helpers LR: Roy Jefferson, Jim Vance, Tim Baylor, George Nock, Robert Hooks, K. C. Jones, Eldridge Spearman, Derrick Humphries and Willie Wood.  Kneeling, Keith Wade and HBell. Photo 3) Former kid in trouble boxing great Sugar Ray Leonard honors fallen fighter Photo 4) Jim Vance, Hattie T and Washington pro football player the late LB Pete Wysocki.

It was announced in news media outlets that popular NBC WRC-TV 4 news anchor Jim Vance would be retiring from the airwaves after 45 years on the DC news beat.  There were stories in the Washington Post, Washingtonian Magazine, USA Today and every television and radio station in the DVM as it related to his 45 year news media odyssey.

The announcement brought back memories and my Inside Story as it related to the trials and tribulations of Jim Vance.  I remember when he first arrived on the DC scene.  It was 1969 one year after the riots that hit inner-cities around this country, including Washington, DC.  Black television news anchors were none existent and the white news reporters and anchors had no clue.  There were no black contacts to cover the stories (Max Robinson was the exception) they needed in the black community.

I also remember exactly where I was the day that Dr. Martin Luther King was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee.  I was standing on the corner of 9th and U Streets with my co-worker Willie Wood.  We had just finished lunch at the popular restaurant Che Maurice.  Willie is a native Washingtonian who played for the NFL World Champions Green Bay Packers.  But during the off season he would return home and work for either the DC Public School system or the DC Recreation Department.  You must remember, NFL players were not making the kind of asinine money today’s players are making so working during the off-season was a necessity.  On that bright sun shiny day in April 1968 someone drove by and shouted out of a car window, “They just killed Dr. King in Memphis!”  Willie and I were lost for words.   We were asked by our Director of the DC Recreation Department Roving Leader Program, the late Stan Anderson to stay on the streets because of our high profiles, but for us to be careful–that was an understatement.

As Willie and I walked the U Street corridor we were joined by the late U. S. Marshall in charge Luke C. Moore a DC resident.  Luke was the first modern day black to head the U. S. Marshall service.  He had been appointed by President Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Luke, Willie and I walked arm and arm down the U Street corridor.  Once we got to Ben’s Chili Bowl, Luke spotted Ben Ali the owner of the restaurant standing out front with several other businessmen.  He left us to see what was happening and was told by Ben that they had gotten orders via the White House to shut down all businesses.  Luke returned to us and explained their dilemma.  He told us to hang on and he would be right back.  When he returned he had good news.  He had spoken with President Johnson and convinced him to allow Ben’s to remain open because someone had to be open for first respondents, doctors and nurses, law enforcement, fire departments, military personnel and youth advocates like myself, we all would need a place to eat.  Ben’s Chili Bowl would be the only business in the community allowed to stay open during the riots.  The U Street corridor and the neighborhoods in the area suffered damages that would take almost 30 years to recover.

2015 marked 50 years I had been working in the Cardozo/Shaw U Street corridor with youth gangs and at-risk children.  The revolution of black television reporters all started with Max Robinson.  He was the first black to work in local television in Washington, DC.  He was the first black hired at WRC-TV 4 in the early 60s and then he moved over to WTOP TV 9 in 1969.  It was Max who kicked the doors down in local and the national television markets for black brothers like Jim Vance and Lester Holt.  Max was the first black to anchor the evening news at ABC News.  Jim followed Max to WRC-TV 4 after the riots.  My nick name for Max Robinson was “Mad Max” I don’t think he liked the name very much but he never said anything.  There were rumors already floating around about his abuse of alcohol and drugs.  It was reported that he fired a gun off in his apartment building one evening in a drunken stupor.  Max and I were like passing ships in the night, until he introduced me to his parents at the 1987 CIAA Basketball Tournament in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia.  This was one year before his passing.  It was a “watershed” moment for me as he gushed over my sports talk radio show Inside Sports to his parents.

Television Trail Blazer Max Robinson

I was already in the war zones of the inner-city when Jim Vance arrived in 1969.  I started work with the United Planning Organization, a community self-help group in 1965 on the U Street corridor.   The organization hired three Neighborhood Workers, Petey Greene, H Rap Brown and me.  I left for the DC Recreation Department in 1967 when UPO gave the department a grant to fund a Youth Gang Task Force for its elite Roving Leader Program with the stipulation, that I would be one of the Task Force members hired.  H. Rap Brown would also leave UPO to take over the reigns of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) replacing Marion Barry.   Petey stayed on with UPO and became a stand-up comedian, radio and legendary television talk show host.  There was an attempt to make a movie of his life several years ago (Talk to Me) but it failed miserably, because Dewey Hughes made it his story.

Jim Vance would later join Dave Bing, Willie Wood, Petey Greene, Luke Moore, Sonny Hill and Roy Jefferson as a member of my reach-back efforts in the inner-city.  The NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball “I CARE” programs exist because they followed my lead into the community. Dave Bing (NBA 1967), Willie Wood (NFL 1968) and Chuck Hilton (MLB 1970).

In 1972 NFL Films record the first ever community service television promote at Hillcrest Children’s Center Saturday Program in DC.  Washington pro football players RB Larry Brown and LB Harold McLinton are shown with CBS crew teaching water safety to inner-city kids.  LR: Larry and Harold standing with towels wrapped around them and that is me kneeling.

In December 1968 my wife Hattie and I found our non-profit organization Kids In Trouble, Inc.  We would use it as a vehicle in the fight to give inner-city children an equal  opportunity to grow-up to be healthy, wealthy and wise.  In December 2013 after 45 years of Christmas toy parties for needy elementary school children we took a step back and retired the toy party program.  When we started our first toy party after the riots in 1968 the only organization giving toys away city-wide to needy children were the United States Marines.  The KIT toy party benefited thousands of kids in the DMV without grants or loans.  The KIT community toy party has since been copied in every city and by every organization in America.

Washington pro football players, NFL Hall of Fame player Dave Robinson, the late Harold McLinton (Santa) and Roy Jefferson play Santa’s Helpers for inner-city children.

In the past 45 years there have been dozens of newspaper, magazines, radio and television stories on the trials and tribulations of  Jim Vance.  His media and community odyssey in the alleys, side streets, highways and byways in the DVM have truly been movie worthy (Believe it or Not). If you don’t think there is a television God, then you don’t know the Jim Vance story.  There are dozens of them in this city but I can only tell one, mine.

The Marvin Gaye story could have easily been the Jim Vance story—similar only in a tragic ending due to the love of drugs.  The big difference Marvin didn’t have anyone to make him pee in a cup twice a week as NBC made Vance.  The procedure was implemented after he was stopped by the police late one night walking on the Beltway.  He was so high he left his Porshe automobile running on the side of the road and decided to walk his way off the beltway.  The television station and his wife Kathy a former TV-4 producer and the late George Michael of the Sports Machine deserved all the credit for saving his life and his career–they had a vested interest.

George arrived on the television sports media scene in 1980 during the time when Inside Sports was kicking butts and taking names.  I had just been named “Washingtonian of the Year” by Washingtonian Magazine for my groundbreaking work in the inner-city.

George hit the scene with pom-poms, and a cheerleader’s mega-phone.  He had everything but the short skirt of a cheerleader.  George was the best description of a “Homer.”  A Homer is someone who roots for the home team and lacks objectivity.  I loved the home team as much as anyone else in sports media but if they stunk the join up I was going to call it exactly like I saw it, no sugar coating!  I  have always thought it was great to have a winning team to report on in the business of sports media.  I could never understand how anyone growing up in DC could go into a stadium or arena and root for the Cowboys (despite the Redskin’s racist history), New York Yankees, Rangers or Knicks against the home team!

George and I got off on the wrong foot because I would call him out on my radio sports talk show and give him the blues about being “The King of Cheerleaders” in DC sports media.  He ignored me until one of the media critics Dennis Tuttle wrote a story in the Washington Star in 1989 with my photo next to TV 9 sportscaster the late Glen Brenner.  The headline read, “Area Sportscasters walk a Fine Line Covering the Redskins

                                    SPORTS MACHINE’S GEORGE MICHAEL

The next day after the story was published I get a telephone call at W-U-S-T Radio after my 5 o’clock sports show, on the other end of the line was TV 4 sportscaster George Michael.  He says, “Is this Harold Bell” and I say, ‘It surely is.’  And everything went down hill from there.  One year later I get a call at the station from George with a different tone of voice saying, ‘Mr. Bell I just want to say, you are doing a hell of a job with the kids in the community and I got Jim’s back.  Have a great Thanksgiving.’  One week later I get letter from George with a $500 check for my annual Christmas toy party for needy children.  Evidently, he did his homework, because he had all ‘The Usual Suspects” on his weekend talk show, John Thompson (GT), James Brown (CBS), Michael Wilbon (Washington Post), Doc Walker (NFL) and last but not least Jim Vance, who I am sure gave him the 411 as it related to Harold Bell.   This is the best example; ‘Respect is earned and not just given.’

A cover story in Washingtonian Magazine several years ago read “Inside Jim Vance“ inquiring minds wanted to know ‘how could a handsome brother making $300,00 a year be unhappy and insecure?’  They could have added ‘and how can he be so paranoid’ to the list. 

In the 70s and 80s Jim and I were joined at the hip when it came to sports and community involvement.  When he arrived in DC I was already an athletic and community icon.  In 1971 I became the first black to host and produce his own radio sports talk show in Washington, DC.  I thank my mentor and friend the notorious Petey Greene.  Petey an ex-con and drug abuser had his own talk show.  It aired on W-O-L Radio on Sunday evenings BCH (before Cathy Hughes).   He gave me 5 minutes every Sunday to talk sports.  I parlayed that opportunity into obtaining my own sports talk show “Inside Sports.”  The ground breaking show aired on W-O-O-K Radio and the rest is sports talk radio history.

Jim Vance supported the Hillcrest Children’s Center Saturday Program that Hattie and I found for neighborhood children immediately after the riots. The program was located in the heart of the inner-city (14th & W Streets, NW).  The program housed Christmas toy parties, Celebrity Fashion Shows, Tennis Tournaments and mentoring programs.  KIT supported local athletes and media personalities like Radio & TV One’s Cathy Hughes, GT Coach John Thompson, Boxer Sugar Ray Leonard and Ohio State QB Cornelius Greene, to name just a few before their 15 minutes of fame.

Inside Sports Celebrity Tennis Tournament (Anacostia Tennis Courts SE)

The Original Inside Sports dominated sports talk in DC with guest like Muhammad Ali, Red Auerbach, Jim Brown, Dr. J, Dave Bing and the list goes on and on.

The late great NBA legend Red Auerbach and his wife Dotie guest host on Inside Sports. Special guest via telephone was tennis great Jimmy Connors. 

When WRC-TV 4 weekend sports anchor Martin Wyatt’s career stalled with station management he left for a television anchor job out west in San Francisco.  Jim made sure I was called in to audition for the vacancy (CBS NFL Host James Brown would follow).  I didn’t make the cut and moved on.

In 1974 Muhammad Ali provided me with a rare opportunity to interview him one on one immediately following the Greatest fight in boxing history “The Rumble in the Jungle” in Zaire, Africa.  Ali was a big underdog against the undefeated Heavyweight Champion of the World, knockout artist, the indestructible George Foreman.  Ali shocked the World when he knocked Foreman out in the 8th round.

In Chicago before leaving for the biggest fight of his career Ali invited me to make the trip, but I when I found out how long the plane was going to be in the air I chicken out.   I was scared to fly across the body of water leading into Africa, a decision I would later regret.  But still he promised me I would be his first interview on his return to the U. S., he kept his word.   We met in the wee hours of the morning in New York City for the most incredible interview he has ever given.  The interview focused on “The Game Called Life!”

I took the finished product to Jim Vance and he took it to NBC WRC-TV 4 brass.  In November 1975 I became the first black to produce and host his own sports television special on NBC affiliate WRC-TV 4, the show was called “Sportlight On Sports” featuring Muhammad Ali.  The show made its debut in prime time before the Washington vs Oakland NFL game.

I was a bad businessman I thought my partners Rodney Brown and Wil Williams were handling the financial end of the business, but I was wrong as two left shoes.  There were no financial benefits.  I became just a footnote in black television sports history.

I learned to write commentaries and how to tell a story in print at the elbow of the best story teller in a media newsroom– his is name is Jim Vance.  But after his frequent bouts with drugs he was denied those on air commentaries.

I am a “Child of the streets” I grew up in a NE housing project called Parkside, the product of a single parent household.  My father was a Rolling Stone (Deadbeat Dad).  My heroes were black women and not black athletes, they had names like Grandma Bell and Mommy B.  My community roots are a result of watching my Great-Uncle the Rev. Earl Tyler (The Tyler House) and my grandmother, Amy Tyler Bell venture out into the local housing project Sursum Corda and hospitals surrounding my family’s church, Mt. Airy Baptist Church to check on the sick and shut-in.  My Great-Grandfather the Rev. Alfred Johnson Tyler laid the first brick to build the church in 1893.  My reach back efforts are not by accident.

The truth be told, the original Santa’s Helpers were not athletes and celebrities from TV and radio!  The original Santa’s Helpers had names like, Phila. Jake, Dog Turner, Shep, Slippy Jackson, Zack, Buster, Cornell, Nook, Black Danny and Bob Wayne.  They laid the foundation for the 45 years of Christmas Toy Parties for needy children.  They provided the toys and cash left at places like Face’s Restaurant, Ed Murphy’s and other water holes in the city.  My roots and credibility on the streets and my work with young people made me a trustworthy partner among the hustlers in the city.  When I decided to run for public office (DC City Council) it was at the urging of everyday folks who had grown tired of the gun toting slum landlord, City Councilman H. R. Crawford in Ward 7.  I was further encouraged by a chance meeting in Las Vegas with my homeboy, legendary recording artist Marvin Gaye.

In September 1979 Sugar Ray Leonard (24-0) was fighting an unknown boxer by the name of Andy Price (28-5-3).  Price had beaten both WBC champ Carlos Palomino and WBA king Pipino Cuevas in non-championship title fights.  To my surprise Marvin would be singing the national anthem but he also own the boxing rights to Price.  Sugar Ray was undefeated and I was a team member in good standing at this point in his career.  Marvin and I joked about me coming to work for him after his fighter kicked Ray’s ass.  I smiled and played along but I didn’t think Price had a chance even though his winning record shown he had beaten several outstanding fighters.  Marvin sung the National Anthem but before he could get out of the ring and back to his seat, Sugar Ray had knocked out Price in less then 3 minutes of the first round.  Following the fight Marvin was distraught.  We had made plans to have breakfast the next morning in Ceasar’s Palace but I am in doubt because of the outcome of the fight.  In the press conference following the fight he gives me the high sign and says “Homeboy, I will see you in the morning!”

The next morning we met for breakfast and he beats me to the restaurant.  We talk about home and the struggles we continue to fight and how can we overcome if we are not all on the same page?  I told him I was thinking about running for the DC City Council and he said ‘Thinking, do it and I will come home and support you.’  We talked for about 2 hours more before he said ‘I am going back to bed, but I want you to meet me back here at 6 pm, I have tickets for the Diana Ross Concert.’  I think he was trying to make up for standing me up in Detroit a couple of years earlier.  We were suppose to meet at the Joe Louis Arena for a fight headlining Thomas Hearns but he was a no-show.  This time he was determined to connect.  Before the show he gave me several telephone numbers where I could reach him to remind him about the upcoming City Council race.  He had the usher escort me and former NFL player and artist George Nock to our front row seats.  He then disappeared to stand in a corner in the back of the concert hall.  The only reason I knew he stayed for the show, Diana hollered out during her performance ‘My baby Marvin Gaye is standing back there somewhere.’ And the place just screamed his name.  That was the last time I saw him alive!  Marvin Gaye had a heart of gold and he never forgot who he was and where he came from.  His biggest problem was one he could not sing his way out of–drug abuse and finding a way to please his father.  In the final analyst, Marvin Gaye was a man’s man.

There have been news media reports that TV 4 news anchor Jim Vance’s announcement of his departure from late night news will be the partial of an era.    One report read, “He has been a local celebrity whose battles with, and eventual conquest of, drug addiction were well chronicled in the news media in the 1980s.”  The timeline coincides with our work in the community together.

He was not alone, celebrity personalities who abuse drugs while participating in Kids In Trouble and Inside Sports community endeavors would read like a Who’s Who in media, sports and entertainment.  To their credit none would abuse their drug of choice while participating in my community endeavors.  The drug abuse will usually take place behind closed doors in designated hotel rooms in the city before or after the events.  It was understood that I didn’t do drugs or like to be around them.

There was the time when my friend an undercover FBI agent told to get the word to an NFL MVP to step back because the drug folks he was dealing with had underworld ties.  I passed the information on to him but he seem to let it go into one ear and out the other.   What saved him was the head coach got hold of the same information and called him into his office.  His neighbor and friend a linebacker on the team told me later he got the message loud and clear.  Cocaine has been the drug of choice for as long as I can remember  for athletes, entertainers and media personalities–there is a laundry list of them in DC.

The most difficult drug abuse case was with my partner in the community, Jim Vance.  While I was preparing to get my ducks in a row to run for the upcoming Ward 7 City Council seat race one of my Santa’s Helpers brought to my attention that my friend and tennis partner had a drug habit in the worst way.  He produced a check that Jim had written for the purchase of the drugs.  He made it perfectly clear he liked Jim but someone needed to tell him to step back and get some help, but he would not be the one.  To Santa’s Helper it was still business as usual, he was not going to turn his back on the money.  Like it not, I was the chosen one to break the news to Jim Vance, the Number One television news anchor in DC and ask him to “Just Say No!”

Later that same night I drove up to the Nebraska Ave. NW, WRC TV-4 news complex to wait for Jim to finish his 11:00 newscast.  I waited outside the building for him to exit.  He didn’t seem to be surprised to see me, he just asked “Whats up man” and I told him I was attending a PTA meeting at nearby Woodrow Wilson High School and I decided to hang around until he got off.  I suggested we go by one of his favorite watering holes and have a beer.  He looked at me and said, ‘What’s the occasion, you drinking a beer?’  

I followed him to a Wisconsin Ave. bar and we sit in a booth.  I got right to the point and gave him the check and said “No explanation is needed but I wish you would get some help.”  He looked at the check and looked back me.  My “friend” then got up and walked out of the bar never to speak to me again until 30 years later.  The occasion, a tribute to local sportscaster Glen Harris who was recovering from a stroke. The tribute was held on the Howard University campus.  It was a great turnout.  I was standing near the entrance talking to several friends when Jim Vance made his entry.  For almost 30 years we were like ships passing in the night pretending we didn’t see each other.  But for some odd reason he came over and spoke to me saying ‘Hey Harold Bell’ and made his way to the head table.  I was puzzled by this show of recognition and I never returned his greeting.

He was full of surprises, the best was yet to come.  As the head table guest were asked to pay tribute to Glen, he made his way to the microphone. First, he told Glen how great he was and how proud he was to have him for a friend.  He thanked him for standing by him during his trials and tribulations with substance abuse.  He said, “Unlike other friends who bad mouthed me you were very supported!”  He then disappeared into the night much like he did 30 years ago.  The more things change the more they remain the same.

Former Olympic Track and Field star and DC Public Schools educator Lacey O’Neal was sitting across the table from me and said “What was that all about?”  I said, ‘Evidently me!’  The sad part of the charade performed by Jim Vance that evening, he still didn’t have the balls to say anything directly to me about his concerns as it related to me allegedly bad mouthing him about his drug problems.  I thought I was trying to save his life–excuse me!

There was no reason for me to bad mouth him about his drug use.  The drug community in DC is a very small community and everybody knows who is who.  For example; Marion and Cora Barry, Petey Greene, a radio and TV owner, were all being served by the same Santa.  Folks even knew NBC had made it mandatory for Jim to pee in a cup twice a week, where is the beef?

Former popular kick returner and defensive back Ricky Harris of the Washington pro football team has a similar story of his and Vance’s drug odyssey in DC.

I still smile to myself when I hear the phrase, “The Bitch Set Me Up.”  If Marion Barry had heeded my advice that part of history would not be a part of his legacy.  It never would have had happen.  His driver and security man, police officer William Stays was in Face’s Restaurant parking lot the night I forewarned ‘The Mayor for Life’ there was an FBI sting in his future.  But as always Marion was thinking with the wrong head and said, “Thanks, I got everything under control.”  Famous last words.

Two weeks after my brief encounter with Jim Vance at Howard University I would see him at the Grand opening of the historical Howard Theater.  This time he says, “Man we have got to have lunch, give me a call at the station next week and we will go from there.”  This time, I said to my wife Hattie, who is a big Jim Vance fan, ‘Guess who I saw today, I saw Jim Vance?’  Her response, ‘Did you ask him why he pretended he didn’t know you when you saved the little autistic girl from the subway tracks?’   ‘He did invite me to have lunch with him!’  She said, ‘Well, what are you going to do?’  Against my better judgement, several days later Hattie and I were visiting a friend at Sibily Hospital when I suggested we ride over to TV 4 and see if Jim was in his office.  He was and he came out to the lobby to greet us and pretended he was happy to see us.  A lunch date was set up for the three of us to meet on K Street NW.   On the particular scheduled day as we were headed out the door to meet him, I received a telephone call from his office cancelling the lunch.  The caller said, “Jim is still in the dentist office and he will call you to re-schedule.”  That was over a year ago and he has disappeared again without a trace.

WRC TV 4 investigative reporter John Friess and I walk through my rescue of a 15 year old autistic child off of the subway tracks in 2007.  Doreen Gentzler reports on the rescue and Jim Vance acts as an innocent by stander

Jim was not really a bad guy even though he has done some bad things to others, his problem, he allowed drugs to be his co-anchor for most of his news media career.  In the meantime, we are still looking for our heroes in all the wrong places.

Sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos protest at 1968 Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City

L-R: H Rap Brown, John Carlos, Dr. Harry Edwards and Stokely Carmichael hold press conference to discuss race and politics in America 

Dr. Edwards and I have been closely associated since the early 70s.  It was shortly after the airing of The Original Inside Sports on W-O-O-K Radio in Washington, DC that we connected.

He is the author of “The Revolt of the Black Athlete.”  Dr. Edwards was also the architect of the Olympic Project for Human Rights, which led to the Black Power Salute protest by sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, both San Jose State College athletes.  The salute has been seen world-wide and it is now a reminder and symbol of racism in America.

The protest took place at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.  Dr. Edwards, is a former athlete on the San Jose track and field team (Discus) which means that he has been in the trenches as an athlete and community advocate.  It is now forty-seven years later and it clearly proves with the turmoil taking places in inner-cities around America, the Olympic Project for Human Rights was ahead of its time.  Dr. Edwards has never been at a loss for words when it comes to the struggle of people of color in America in all walks of life.

In several of my recent blogs related to police brutality and the black athlete/media personalities who claim they understand the dynamics of racism in America, Dr. Edwards begs to disagree.  Especially, those who have no track records of doing anything worthwhile in the black community before they became a “Million Dollar Slave” or a radio or television personality.  I thought it was important that I revisit and share some of his thoughts with you as we head into difficult times with the shutdown in DC.

For an example, there is a young brother who is a well-known former newspaper sports columnist and now a television sports talk show personality, and author.  He and I often disagree on some of his talking and writing points.  I tried to explain to him that it is nothing personal when I disagree with him.  It is all part of the territory when you make yourself an expert in all things American (all things sports, politics, race relations, economics, education, the dynamics of the inner-city, life and death, etc.) in a public forum.  You will be challenged, and it is then you will have to decide, friend or foe!  And can you always pick up a phone and discuss your differences with a friend.  Difference of opinions are not “Rocket Science.”

I have always said, “What makes me different from others who voice their expert opinions on our airwaves, in our newspapers and on the worldwide internet every day–I understand the different between Constructive Criticism and Destructive Criticism!” And therefore, I don’t think everyone who disagrees with me does not like me–of course there are a few exceptions.

The heat that I took on Inside Sports in the early 70s, and the heat today’s sports talk show host are taking, there is no comparison.  The reason, I was first in discussing racism on and off the field of play, first to play message music, first to write sports commentary, first to invite sports reporters on my show to discus local and national sports teams and issues.  Inside Sports was outside the lines and REAL SPORTS long before ESPN, Bryant Gumble and HBO.

In 2015, 47 years after the 1968 Olympic Games, this was Dr. Edwards’ response to several of my blogs as it relates to the criminal justice system, racism and police brutality in America.

He said “Harold, you got a good deal of the Ferguson, Baltimore, calls right. But you’ve got to frame the situation correctly and install it with the proper historical/ political dynamics. Otherwise, you end up in contradiction across the board.  For example , just as your discourse stands , I’m glad that “Baltimore Mom’s” name wasn’t Adrian Peterson – the contradictions would have been far too stark for all of those cheering her actions and a media / governing apparatus controlled by the 1%, a leadership class so crass and desperate to quell righteous outrage that they would pitch Ray Lewis, George Foreman, and Charles Barkley as leaders and spokespersons in a struggle  that is so serious, that has so much at stake that young Black men AND WOMEN are being buried – and I’m not just talking about those killed by White cops and vigilantes like George Zimmerman . The more than 5000 Black homicides and over half of those are Black suicides each year must also be counted in the mix if the dynamics of the Baltimores, Fergusons, etc. are properly factored in, framed and projected. Within this context, “Baltimore Mom” is as much a victim of developments as Freddie Gray. It is also the case that only within proper context can the labeling of desperate, marginalized, villainized, and dehumanized young people as “thugs” and “criminals” be fully understood. In the 1950’s and 1960’s it was White racists who talked confidently about “outside agitators” and who applied “criminal ” and other such labels to ” those people “.  Now it is Black officials, from the Mayor right up to the President who have slipped so easily and thoughtlessly into the tack of covering gross, malignantly negligent economic, political, and moral failings of the American system and society with ” labels”- as if the young people cited are responsible for the conditions of their communities and absolutely wrong for their expressions of blind rage against their situation and outcomes. So in sum, I am all for condemning violent behavior, I am all for cheering on “Baltimore Mom” – AFTER THE POLITICAL /ECONOMIC / MORAL FRAMEWORK AND DYNAMICS THAT ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR CONDITIONS IN BALTIMORE HAVE BEEN ADMITTED AND RESPONSIBILITY ATTRIBUTED IN CLEAR AND UNEQUIVOCAL LANGUAGE. THEN let’s see where the negative labeling TRULY is appropriately applied – and I will guarantee you it will be the children who are labeled as anything other than victims.

I am not against athletes speaking out and speaking up on political issues- anyone who knows my history of sports activism knows that. What I am unalterably opposed to is uninformed, largely politically ignorant and obtuse people- athletes or any other category of privileged elites- presenting themselves as voices of political reason and strategic vision to masses of marginalized, dispossessed, left behind and left out people struggling EVERY DAY to survive in a system that does not even value their lives, much less care about their futures. So, by way of parallel example, everyone quite rightly scoffed and laughed when Dennis Rodman showed up on the arm of the North Korean dictator talking global politics. He was deemed a clown, a useful fool. So, now, without them saying a word- analytical, strategic, or even reflective- about the culpability and  failure of a political-economic system that by calculated function and longstanding institutional design condemns MILLIONS of African-American men , women, and children to inter-generational desperation and hopelessness, everyone is supposed to accept , even applaud the words and actions of these athlete ” leaders” who categorically  label entire segments of Black populations ” thugs ” and  “criminals “- rather than the casualties and victims of the system that they are – when they act out in righteous rage against the forces oppressing them. Violence against people and property in these communities over the horrifically immoral conditions under which these people live is, of course, unacceptable – if for no other reason than the very practical concern that when they burn buildings, they are burning services and jobs in their own communities. But to simply cite the protests and violence perpetrated BY some among them without citing the institutionally, economically, and politically perpetrated violence against ALL of them is a crass and unforgivable fraud. And those who do so are little more than minions and sycophants of the system who offer neither vision nor constructive change- their message is “just keep quiet, just work harder, just be grateful – and who knows, maybe you will get lucky like me. In sum, far too often, too many of the athletes ( and others ) SENT out to calm the masses are ignorant, uninformed, and therefore acting as little more than stooges for a  system driven to rely upon police authority and violent force to keep order among an ever more desperate population.  And this is not a game.”

I have often said, “The most important Game being played in Black America today is The Game Called Life.”  Dr. Edwards and I disagree but we don’t stop talking!  Hopefully, It may be just a matter of him seeing the glass half-full and me seeing the glass half empty! 

BY RICH SCHAPIRO NEW YORK DAILY NEWS  (reprint)                                                                                                     Wednesday, January 14, 2015, 2:39 PM

Joseph Crystal was a rising star in the Baltimore Police Department, making detective after only two years on the force.

Sgt. Earl K. Bell with Police Burtell Jefferson

The late Sgt. Earl K. Bell of the DCPD and Baltimore Detective Joseph Crystal had a lot in common.  They both saw police brutality being committed by fellow offices and turned them into their superiors (aka Frank Serpico).  The police officials immediately went into their Code of Silence and Thin Blue Line modes (Marty Tapscott, Maurice Turner and Isacc Fullwood in DC).  Baltimore Police Chief Anthony Batts and former DC police officials, have a lot in common–they are all cowards.  They found it more important to be one of “The Boys” then for them to do the right thing.

The only reason Batts’ investigation coincided with States Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s was because he was caught between a ‘Rock and a Hard Place!’  He knew going in that she was doing her own investigation and his findings had better be similar to hers–the Mayor Samantha Rawlings Blake was watching him.  There was already another law suit in the courts against the department as it related to police brutality and Batts’ finger prints are all over it.  This complaint was being brought by a former Top Cop in the department.

The Right Wing is pissed off because this was the first time in American history that a Black President was in the White House and a Black United States Attorney General were all now sitting in ‘The Cat Bird’s Seat.’  In Baltimore you had a black State’s Attorney and a black Mayor.  This is the first time in American history, a group of cop killers would be immediately arrested and a speedy trial would be in their future.  The community had has also discovered a black politician who was not afraid to go Toe to Toe with some the biggest bigots to ever hold office on Capitol Hill (the list is too long to mention).  They sat on both sides of aisle–Republican and Democrat and every thing in between–meet Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.).

In a recent speech on the House Floor by Rep. Johnson you could clearly hear a mouse pee on cotton it was so quiet. He said, “There is a war on black men in America and I am was outraged.”  Fox News’ Shaun Hannity cried foul and Rep. Johnson responded, see link below.

http://video.foxnews.com/v/4176045062001/rep-hank-johnson-sounds-off-on-race-relations-in-america/?#sp=show-clips

           Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga)

Why suddenly do they want Atty. Mosby and Mayor Blake to ‘Play Fair’ when they have not played fair in 500 years?  They want Atty. Mosby to recuse herself and bring in a special prosecutor and move the trial to another jurisdiction—wishful thinking.  Remember community leaders asked for the exact same thing in Ferguson and were ignored.  What is good for the goose is good for the gander—what goes around comes around!

Was this playing fair in Delaware? /  http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/08/us/delaware-police-kick-video/index.html

In the meantime, 35 miles up the road in Washington, DC, Police Chief Kathy Lanier and new Mayor Muriel Bowser (showing her true colors) were trying to go in a different direction from Attorney Mosby and Mayor Blake.  Evidently, they are trying to keep hope alive for the corrupt cops of the DC Police Department.  Bowser tried to slip a bill passed the City Council keeping police video footage from the victims of police brutality without a court order.  The cameras were to make the police department more transparent and more accountable but it is apparent the Chief and Mayor had another agenda.

http://yourblackworld.net/2015/04/30/dr-boyce-watkins-stephen-a-smiths-baltimore-comments-were-embarrassing-and-probably-even-racist/

In a telephone conversation with a Baltimore cop this what he said to Detective Joe Crystal,

‘If you snitch, your career is done’:

Crystal says he was harassed, labeled a ‘rat’ after attempt to root out police brutality

Det. Joseph Crystal witnessed a handcuffed drug suspect beaten and his ankle broken by a fellow Baltimore police officer. When he was compelled to report it to his superiors, the nightmare started. Crystal, now a police officer in Florida, is suing the department over the backlash.

Before he became public enemy No. 1 inside the Baltimore Police Department, Det. Joseph Crystal was considered one of its rising stars.

The son of two New York Police Department cops, Crystal was put in charge of his police academy cadet class on day one.

He was promoted to detective before he reached his second year on the force.

And he went on to lead his violent crime unit in gun arrests, racking up high-profile collars that made the evening news.

For Crystal, rooting out crime in one of the most violent cities in the nation didn’t even feel like work.

“Being a cop was all I ever wanted to do,” he says. “A dream come true.”

But that dream turned into a nightmare four years ago when his brothers in blue turned on him – bombarding him with taunts and threats, refusing to come to his aid during drug busts and even leaving a dead rat on his windshield.

His crime? He reported a case of police brutality.

Crystal drew the ire of his department after coming forward to report the 2011 beating of a drug suspect by a fellow officer. Crystal’s subsequent trial testimony helped secure convictions against the cop who carried out the beating and the sergeant who helped facilitate it.

Crystal says the pattern of abuse that followed led him to resign from the job he loved.

“I never imagined that doing the right thing as a cop could cost me so much,” Crystal, 31, told the Daily News this week in his most extensive interview to date.

Crystal filed a federal lawsuit against the Baltimore Police Department three weeks ago, claiming it failed to protect him from retaliation after he blew the whistle on his fellow officers.

A department spokesman declined to address any aspect of Crystal’s case. “We don’t comment on pending litigation,” said Det. Ruganzu Howard.

Crystal felt like he was on top of the world when he started working for the department in 2008.

The New Jersey native had spent the last six years working for the Coast Guard. He graduated boot camp three days before the 9/11 attacks and then spent more than a week guarding the smoldering site.

The Coast Guard job fulfilled his sense of duty. But it wasn’t until he started working as a cop that Crystal felt like he had found his calling.

He stood out from the start. Crystal was honored with the prestigious Police Commissioner’s Award upon graduating from the academy and was the first member of his class to make detective.

“I was just so motivated,” Crystal said. “All I could think about was this was my shot. I’m going to do it right.”

That conviction would be tested on the night of Oct. 27, 2011.

It was about 8 p.m. when Crystal, along with other members of his Violent Crime Impact Section, witnessed a suspected drug transaction on Baltimore’s east side.

Upon seeing the cops, one of the men, identified as Antoine Green, threw his drugs to the ground and sprinted away. The officers gave chase but Green got away.

Minutes later, a 911 call came in from a woman who reported a man kicked in the back door of her house.

Cops swooped in on the home and arrested Green. After arriving at the scene, Crystal learned that the home belonged to the girlfriend of a city cop named Anthony Williams, who he had never met.

The off-duty Williams showed up after the suspect had already been cuffed and driven away in a police van.

Crystal says he saw Williams have a quick conversation with Sgt. Marinos Gialamas. “I’ll take care of it,” Gialamas told Williams, according to Green.

STEVE RUARK/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Baltimore cops had called Crystal a ‘rat’ and left drawings of the rodent on his desk. In one incident, Crystal was with his wife when he found a dead rat on the hood of his car — in his driveway.

Moments later, the police van returned and Green was led back into the home.

“I was thinking to myself, ‘What the hell?’” Crystal said. “I was baffled.”

Crystal testified that Williams dragged Green into the back of the house where he began beating the handcuffed suspect.

“I can hear the assault,” Crystal said. “I hear the banging. I hear the guy hit the floor.

“A couple minutes later, they bring the guy out,” Crystal added. “His shirt’s ripped. He’s having trouble standing. Later on, I found out his ankle was broken. It was obvious not just to any cop but to any person that saw it what had just transpired.”

The battered Green was led back into the police van and driven away.

“It was wrong what happened,” Crystal said. “I felt sick about it.”

That night, Crystal called his parents and told them what happened. The two former cops didn’t mince words. “You know what you’re going to have to do,” his mother, Madeline, told him.

“Once you lose your integrity,” said his father, Robert, “it’s gone.”

Crystal didn’t hesitate. He called his sergeant and explained what happened.

Crystal said his superior took the opposite stance from his parents. “If you snitch, your career is done,” Crystal recalled him saying. “Nobody’s going to work with you.”

The young detective couldn’t believe what he was hearing. But it didn’t stop him from reporting the beatdown to prosecutors.

I was shooting through this place with a rocket strapped to my back. Now, because of doing the right thing, doors are slamming.

Somehow, word got out immediately. Days after his meeting with prosecutors, Crystal said, a sergeant called him “a snitch” and left a hand-drawn picture of a rat and cheese on his desk.

“I’m not a sensitive guy,” Crystal said. “It didn’t necessarily bother me right away. I said to myself, ‘If this is the worst that happens, I can live with it.’ But from there, it snowballed.”

The guys in his unit refused to ride with him. To his face and behind his back, officers called him a rat and a snitch.

“People don’t like you, and you need to watch your back,” one officer told Crystal, according to his lawsuit.

The harassment escalated after Gialamas and Williams were criminally charged in the assault in Oct. 2012, according to Crystal’s lawsuit.

Out of the blue, a sergeant called him and said: “You better pray to God that you’re not the star witness,” Crystal recalled.

Now officers were no longer backing him up on the streets. On two separate occasions, Crystal said, he called for backup while pursuing drug suspects but nobody showed up.

The second time it happened, Crystal was in the process of arresting a suspected drug dealer and buyer. Suddenly, his supervisor called his cell phone and “gave him a direct order to return to the district and that he would not be given backup,” the lawsuit says.

Crystal had no choice but to let the suspects go.

“Nobody wants to ride with you,” a detective later told him, according to the suit.

Around the same time, Crystal was told he was being demoted back to patrol.

And his security clearance was inexplicably revoked, forcing him to stop working on an assignment with the FBI.

Instead of going after drug kingpins and gun traffickers, he was put on a midnight-shift burglary detail.

“It was like being kicked in the gut,” Crystal said. “I was shooting through this place with a rocket strapped to my back. Now, because of doing the right thing, doors are slamming.”

Still, nothing could have prepared Crystal for what happened the day after Thanksgiving 2012.

He and his wife returned home to find a dead rat on the windshield of his car. As sickening a sight as it was, Crystal was more bothered by the message behind it: We know where you live.

“I was trying to be strong for my wife because she was hysterical,” Crystal said.

Crystal said he sought help from his union, but an official told him his best option was to find a different department. By that time, Crystal and his wife had moved in with her parents out of fear of retaliation. “It was like I was a cop going into the witness protection program,” Crystal said.

The trial over Green’s assault got underway in Feb. 2014. Crystal testified against both Williams and Gialamas. By that point, he had nothing to lose.

A Baltimore jury found Williams guilty of assault and obstruction of justice and Gialamas guilty of misconduct.

Williams was sentenced to 45 days behind bars. Gialamas received probation. Both men are no longer working for the department, a spokesman said.

“This case was very troubling to this court,” a Baltimore judge M. Brooke Murdock said before handing down the sentence to Williams. “The community has a right to expect the police will respect the law.”

Crystal had hoped the end of the trial would mark the end of the abuse. He was wrong.

Somebody made a fake Twitter account in his name and started tweeting reporters that he was cheating on his wife. He was bounced around to different patrols and made to feel like a “leper.” And an internal investigation that Baltimore Police Chief Anthony Batts promised would “get to the bottom of what happened to him” went nowhere, Crystal said.

Beaten down by the abuse, he resigned from the force in August.

The suit Crystal filed on Dec. 22 seeks at least $2.5 million and names the department, Chief Batts and his former supervisor Sgt. Robert Amador.

“It seems to me that the Baltimore Police Department and any police department across the country needs individuals like Joe Crystal,” said his lawyer, Don Discepolo. “He did stand up for what he thought was right and he was persecuted for it.”

Crystal and his wife now live in Florida where he’s working as an officer with the Walton County Sheriff’s Office.

Crystal understands that some might draw parallels between his case and the coordinated displays of disrespect shown to Mayor de Blasio by NYPD officers at the funerals of slain cops Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos.

But Crystal doesn’t see a connection.

“I see people here as they’re hurting and upset right now at the loss of two of their own,” Crystal said. “I saw what happened to me as somewhere along the line we lost our way.

“What I saw was criminal. What I see here is an emotion,” Crystal added. “And those are two very different things.”

He tried for months to get a law enforcement job near Maryland but found no takers.

“Looking back, I still can’t fathom what happened,” Crystal said. “How do you honestly expect people to have faith, to trust the cops, when they let this happen?”

Toya Graham & Ray Lewis

In Baltimore the murder of Freddy Gray by city police has led to riots following the funeral of Gray. The leadership leading up to the mass confusion (finger pointing) and riots as in Washington, DC, Ferguson and North Charleston are similar in style—no substance.  The blind continues to lead the blind.

Children had taken over the streets in Baltimore and some black adults are condemning their behavior—I wonder why?

These children did not come out of their mother’s womb with aka47s, selling drugs, using the N word, wearing their pants down below their knees, looting and burning mom and pop businesses to the ground.  This is all learned behavior–taught by us.

The exceptions are the moms like we seen in Baltimore.  “The Baltimore Mom” Toya Graham, took to the streets to save her only male child.  The video went viral and shows how flawed this system really is when it comes to controlling the behavior of today’s black children. And you want to know what is wrong with our children–take a look in the mirror.

According to today’s rules our children like the young boy seen on the video taking the Floyd Mayweather left jabs and right hooks from his mom, he would be an abused child in the eyes of today’s laws.  He could have called 911 and had his mother arrested for child abuse—are you kidding me?

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/28/us/baltimore-riot-mom-smacks-son/

This is exactly where we lost our children to the streets.  Parents like the “The Baltimore Mom,”  she is trying to raise her children like she was raised but she is now seen as a criminal in a flawed law enforcement and court system.

The Baltimore Police Chief Anthony Batts said, “I wish we had more parents like her,” but the truth be told in normal circumstances a 911 call from her son, she would have been arrested by members of his department.

This system is the brainchild of the 1% who control all the wealth.  Therefore, they control the court system in America including the Supreme Court.

For example; this is the same 1% who influenced the Supreme Court to pass a law allowing the 1% to give an unlimited amount of cash donations to their favorite political candidates.  They can then buy the White House, Senate and Congress.  This allows the rich to keep getting rich and the poor stays poor.

The Baltimore mom was my mother and grandmother.  I can hear “The Amen” coming from the black community as I write.

I am speaking from experience and not from “he say she say.”

My heroes were not athletes even though growing up I admired Heavyweight Champions, Jack Johnson and Joe Louis.  There were also the multi-talented Paul Roberson and baseball great Jackie Robinson.  All won my respect and admiration because they stood for something and didn’t just fall for anything like most of today’s athletes.

Unlike former Heavyweight Champion George Foreman who made an appearance of Fox News during the chaos in Baltimore in April of 2015.  He was seen and heard saying how PAL (Police Athletic League) rescued him, Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali from the mean streets of their hometowns.  It sounded more like an endorsement for the police departments around the country.  We all are aware that there some good cops out there, but the bad ones are being given a Free Pass to murder black men and children.  George is another example; “Its best to be thought a fool then to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”

Big George has a history of going along to get along.  In the 1968 Olympic Games San Jose State sprinters John Carlos and Tommy Smith shook up the sports world when they raised their black fist gloved hands above their heads while receiving their medals on the podium.  This was their way of protesting racism in America.  They were banished from the games.  In the meantime, George Foreman was seen after his Gold Medal win in the ring waving the America flag.  Gold Medal winner and NBA legend Spencer Haywood who was only 18 years old at the time says, “I could not believe George’s behavior especially after John and Tommy were banished from the games.  George was seen by the other black athletes as a Sellout and an Uncle Tom.”  His appearance on Fox News 47  years later says, little has changed.  Long live Muhammad Ali.

Tommy Smith and John Carlos taking a stand

I admire NBA LaBron James and his Miami teammates who wore Hoodies during the senseless killing of Tryvon Martin, and the NFL Bengal players who emerged from the tunnel of a game with “Hands Up” in support of Michael Brown in Ferguson.   The Wizards Paul Pierce and John Wall adding their voices while asking for calm and peace.  There is a place for the Black Athlete in reach-back efforts to help improve the lives of inner-city youth whose lives once resembled their very own.

Bradley Beal, Paul Pierce and John Wall–Wizards winners on and off the court  

It is truly amazing that sports fans, media types and regular Joes want to compare who is the best basketball player, Michael Jordan or LaBron James?  In the final analysis, what it all will boil down to, will not be found in NBA statistics, points scored, rebounds, assist, triple doubles, or titles won.  The most important stat when all is said and done will be–who was the better “Human Being?”  Labron will win hands down.  His reach back efforts to family, friends and community compared to Michael’s–no contest.

I am confused by those in our community who call our children “Thugs and Hoodlums” and have never walked in their shoes, especially, NBA color analyst Charles Barley.  And then there is my friend ESPN PTI co-host Michael Wilbon who goes on national television and says it is okay to use the N word among friends.  He is not thinking, he is also teaching and telling his children it is okay to do the same.

What about those college students at Maryland and Duke Universities who riot and set automobiles on fire after their underdog team wins, are they “Thugs and Hoodlums?”

How about when the Denver Broncos won the NFL Super Bowl in 1999. Fans set cars and buildings on fire–hoodlums and thugs?

How about when Vancouver lost the Stanley Cup in 2011 and fans went on a rampage burning torching everything in sight–hoodlums and thugs?

How about 2014 when the SF Giants won the World Series and fans cost millions of dollars while rioting–hoodlums and thugs?

How about 2015 when Ohio State won the NCAA football championship students and fans set cars and buildings on fire–hoodlums and thugs?

But when a white cop shoots and kills a black man or woman in cold blood and the end result is a riot–hoodlums and thugs?  I don’t think so!

ESPN NFL color analyst and former Baltimore Raven linebacker Ray Lewis’ was clearly out of bounds as he was seen ranting on a video that went viral.  His shout-out as it related to the riots in the city was anything but helpful.  He is seen sitting in his “Ivory Tower” in Baltimore yelling out to the rioters words about their bad behavior.  Here is a guy that jumped the moon his rookie year in the NFL when he was a suspect in a murder investigation in a Atlanta night club shoot-out.  Thanks to Raven owner the late Art Modell and General Manager Ozzie Newsome he beat the charge.  If Lewis was really interested in trying to defuse the situation, he would have gathered several of his former teammates and encouraged them to put on their Raven football jerseys and make their way to Penn Ave.  There they would join the other volunteers to try to bring peace to the community.  Now that would have been You Tube worthy.

My friend Charlie Sprow hit the nail on the head describing Ray Lewis’ You Tube rant when he said, “I saw Ray Lewis ranting and raving last night. Nothing he said was of substance!”

Ray’s former teammate QB Joe Flacco was quoted saying, “I love Ray and I love how, he always spoke from the heart, but if you listen to those speeches, a lot of them didn’t make sense.  He meant everything he was saying, but I didn’t know what he was talking about 90% of the time.”  See Ray being Ray in link below.

http://deadspin.com/ray-lewis-gives-baltimore-a-motivational-speech-1700736974

Message to Ray Lewis, “We are a show me community, don’t tell me.”  My heroes were not athletes, my heroes were black women with names like Mommy B and Grandma Bell.

My brothers and I spent our early years with Amy Tyler Bell the matriarch of the Bell family in NE DC.  Grandma Bell was the Enforcer, Terminator, the Good Cop and Bad Cop all rolled into one.  She did not play when it came to her children and grandchildren.

The Ground Rules at Grandma’s House: When the street lights came on you had to be in the front yard or in the house—no excuses or exceptions.

My heroes

                                                                                           Grandma Bell & Grands                                Mommy B & Earl, HB and Bobby

I remember one evening my younger brother Earl missed the curfew by a few minutes and was late getting to the dinner table.  Grandma asked him what was his problem, he muttered something under his breath and before he knew it she had hit him with a backhand.  She knocked him into the kitchen sink.  When he made it back to the dinner table as the Bible says, “He was clothed in his right mind!” 

Today’s black children are already sick and tired of being sick and tired.  They see no way out.  They are victims of high unemployment in double digits compared to white children.  They are being taught in inferior schools and are victims of a murder rate among black men and children that is off the charts.  Over 600,000 children go to bed hungry every night and 16 million people are homeless in America, the richest country in the free world.  They see their parents struggling and they don’t seem to have a clue. The so-called Black Leadership is never seen until after the fact (someone is dead).

These deadly encounters have become nothing more than photo opts for you know who?  For example; as the family arrived at the grave for the burial of Freddy Gray there was not one member of the clergy who participated in the funeral in attendance.  The mortician had to give the final prayer.

Hats off to “The Baltimore Mom,” you go girl, keeping hope alive for your son.

By the Way: Setting The Record Straight

HB,

You got a good deal of the Ferguson, Baltimore, calls right. But you’ve got to frame the situation correctly and install it with the proper historical/ political dynamics. Otherwise, you end up in contradiction across the board.  For example, just as your discourse stands , I’m glad that “Baltimore Mom’s” name wasn’t Adrian Peterson – the contradictions would have been far too stark for all of those cheering her actions and a media / governing apparatus controlled by the 1%, a leadership class so crass and desperate to quell righteous outrage that they would pitch Ray Lewis, George Foreman, and Charles Barkley as leaders and spokespersons in a struggle  that is so serious, that has so much at stake that young Black men AND WOMEN are being buried – and I’m not just talking about those killed by White cops and vigilantes like George Zimmerman . The more than 5000 Black homicides and over half as many suicides each year must also be counted in the mix if the dynamics of the Baltimores, Fergusons, etc. are properly factored in, framed and projected. Within this context, “Baltimore Mom” is as much a victim of developments as Freddie Gray. It is also the case that only within proper context can the labeling of desperate, marginalized, villainized, and dehumanized young people as “thugs” and “criminals” be fully understood. In the 1950’s and 1960’s it was White racists who talked confidently about “outside agitators” and who applied “criminal ” and other such labels to ” those people “.  Now it is Black officials, from the Mayor right up to the President who have slipped so easily and thoughtlessly into the tack of covering gross, malignantly negligent economic, political, and moral failings of the American system and society with ” labels”- as if the young people cited are responsible for the conditions of their communities and absolutely wrong for their expressions of blind rage against their situation and outcomes. So in sum, I am all for condemning violent behavior, I am all for cheering on “Baltimore Mom” – AFTER THE POLITICAL /ECONOMIC / MORAL FRAMEWORK AND DYNAMICS THAT ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR CONDITIONS IN BALTIMORE HAVE BEEN ADMITTED AND RESPONSIBILITY ATTRIBUTED IN CLEAR AND UNEQUIVOCAL LANGUAGE. THEN let’s see where the negative labeling TRULY is appropriately applied –I guarantee you that the children will be principally labeled as victims of poor education systems, off shored jobs, collapsed family , civic, and community political institutions, etc. And THAT is where the real change work must focus – not just upon the young people changing THEIR minds and behavior.”

HE

Dr. Harry Edwards is the author of The Revolt of the Black Athlete, Dr. Edwards was the architect of the Olympic Project for Human Rights, which led to the Black Power Salute protest by Tommie Smith and John Carlos, both San Jose State College athletes, at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.

                                                                Rev. Joseph Delaine & Dr. Charles H. Thomas, Jr. /  Modern Day Civil Rights Warriors

There is a little known black history fact as it relates to the bravery of black South Carolinians in the late 40s and 50s.  They created America’s first modern day civil rights movement.

The pictorial history can be found of the movement in the book “Out of the Box in Dixie”  Photographed and chronicled by civil rights photographer Cecil J. Williams (www.freedomjusticesimages.com). The book clearly shows the modern day movement started in Clarendon, South Carolina long before Brown vs. Board of Education, Montgomery Bus Boycott, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King’s March on Washington,         and the lunch counter sit-ins.  Author Cecil Williams is a cousin of Dr. Charles H. Thomas Jr.  Dr. Thomas was one of the leaders of the movement when it moved from Clarendon to Orangeburg, South Carolina in the 50’s.  Cecil was still in high school but was armed with a camera and he would travel.

The Godfather of the civil rights movement was a black man by the name of Rev. Joseph DeLaine.  In 1949 Rev. DeLaine and friend Harry Briggs organized a group of parents in Clarendon and formed a picket line and challenged school segregation in the county.  The Briggs vs Elliott petition bearing Harry Briggs’ name was the forerunner of Brown vs.  Board of Education.  Their Supreme Court challenge was the first to move to the high court.  Several years later four other cases would evolve into Brown vs Board of Education.  Famed civil rights attorney Thurgood Marshall would represent the plaintiffs.  In 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled segregation in public schools unconstitutional.  My Spingarn high school basketball teammate the late Spotswood Bolling would be the lead plaintiff in integrating the Washington, DC  Public School system (Bolling vs Board of  Education).  We thank Harry Briggs and Rev. DeLaine for their sacrifices and courage against all odds.

Rev. DeLaine, his wife and three children stand in front of his burned out church

The KKK of Clarendon County also thanked Rev. DeLaine by burning his church to the ground.  He would later have to flee for his life to New York City.  The Clarendon County police took out a warrant for his arrest after he returned gun fire defending his family and home from members of the Klu Klux Klan trying to pull off a sneak attack in the middle of the night.  In 1956 the First Lady of the United States Eleanor Roosevelt the wife of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt attended a rally on behalf of Rev. DeLaine at Madison Square Garden with actress Tulalah Bankhead.

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and actress Tulalah Bankhead attend a rally in New York City in support of Rev. DeLaine seated on the left. 

With Rev. DeLaine exiled to New York City the Clarendon County Klan thought they had ended the fight for freedom in South Carolina but his neighbors in Orangeburg County had his back.

The Orangeburg Dream Team of Civil Rights.  Dr. Thomas is on the far right

Attorney Thurgood Marshall would become an adviser to the Orangeburg freedom fighters led by a “The Second Wave of the Civil Rights Movement.” The second wave included, NAACP President, Dr. Charles H. Thomas, Jr. a Professor of Psychology at South Carolina State University and members of the clergy.  Thurgood Marshall would be their lead lawyer and adviser.  He was the brainchild in Brown vs Board of Education and would go on to become the first black judge to be seated on the Supreme Court.

Thurgood Marshall seen boarding a train in DC’s Union Station headed for Orangburg

During one student uprising the Orangeburg County police swooped down on protesters and locked up over 350 students.  They were held in an outdoor jail like stockade, it reminded many of Nazi Germany.  The New York Times published a front page picture story of students in the stockade.

Dr. Thomas bails his children, Loretta, Reggie and Hattie (in shades) out of jail

Dr. Thomas and the entire Thomas clan were on the front lines of the civil rights movement.  The Thomas Family without a doubt is the “First Family of Civil Rights” in Orangeburg County.

On several occasions Dr. Thomas had to put up his house for collateral to get his children and other students out of jail.  It was the norm for Atty. Mathew Perry to be summoned to get Hattie, Charlease, Loretta, Reggie and Ann all out of the Orangeburg County jail.  Cops and judges knew the Thomas’ by name.

Dr. Thomas, sister-in-law Nancy and brother Milbren  march for freedom in downtown Orangeburg 

It was definitely a family affair future sons-in-law Weldon Hammond (Loretta) was a student and Robert Stevenson (Charlease) was teaching at South Carolina State.  They also prove to be pains in the butts of law-enforcement and establishment bigots.

Elease the wife of Dr. Thomas (2nd from the front) joins him and follows members of the clergy in a protest march on downtown Orangeburg

Ann Thomas Riley the youngest daughter would be one of the first blacks to integrate the Orangeburg all white high school and Harold Riley her husband was one the students shot during the “Orangeburg Massacre”

School teacher Gloria Rackley was another important member of the Thomas clan she was known to the family as Aunt Gloria.  She was a true warrior where ever you saw the Thomas clan she was just a step behind.  Her ties were so strong to the family and the NAACP the Orangeburg County school system threatened her with dismissal if she did not cut her ties.  She walked away and continued to fight.  When Charlease was arrested the cops tried to separate her from the rest of the protesters because she was Dr. Thomas’ daughter.  It was Gloria Rackley who got between her and the cops and said “no way.”  Gloria’s daughter Lurma would later become the Press Secretary for the late DC Mayor, Marion Barry.

Gloria Rackley reads letter from school board demanding she cut ties with boycott or else

Dr. Thomas would later take over the reins as President of the local chapter of the NAACP.  His adviser and right hand man was Attorney Mathew Perry.  Attorney Perry would show up in a courtroom and the white judges would immediately take a bathroom break and sometimes would not come back.  Attorney Perry would go on to become the first black judge to be seated on the South Carolina Court of Appears.

The fight for civil rights got so intense in Orangeburg the Rev. Martin Luther King (insert) made his presence and support known at a rally organized and coordinated by Dr. Thomas.  This was just months before his now famous March on Washington.

Dr. King and associates can be seen in the crowd attending a Orangeburg protest rally organized by Dr. Thomas.

Dr. Thomas started and founded voter registration for the entire state of South Carolina while teaching at South Carolina State University.  He was also a pain in the butts for white folks and the Uncle Toms in Orangeburg.  The white folks had their “House Negroes” who would sit in on the strategy meetings and report the upcoming plans to their white bosses.  It got so bad Dr. Thomas and the other coordinators of the marches and boycotts had to have two meetings.  The first meeting they would give out misleading information and plans for the ‘House Negroes’ to carry back to their bosses.  The second meeting would be held to discuss the true plan.  Sixty years later that type of plantation mentality is still holding America back.

Dr. Thomas with student on campus showing him how to register to vote

The Orangeburg Massacre was the worst murder of students on an educational institution in the history of this country (including Kent State).  White law-enforcement would lead Claflin and South Carolina State students on peaceful daylight marches to downtown Orangeburg but under the cover of darkness they became deadly assassins.  In 1968 highway patrolmen and local cops shot and killed three students and wounded 27 more.  My brother-in-law Harold Riley a native of Orangeburg took two bullets that night and watched his friend Samuel Hammond die.  One bullet is still lodged in his leg. These hideous acts were carried out without provocation on the campus of South Carolina State University.

On that fateful night students were first participating in a peaceful march and demonstration at a local segregated bowling alley just off campus.  There might have been some name calling among the student directed toward law-enforcement.  The cops evidently took it personal and without warning started shooting in the direction of the students who retreated to their campus.  When the smoke had cleared three students were dead.  The cops claimed they were fired on first and forty years later they have yet to come up with a smoking gun.  In 2019 despite a black in the White House there is still Justice and Just-Us in America!  Police brutality against black men has become the norm, see Ferguson, New York City, North Charleston, SC and the beat goes on and on.

State Troopers stand over a student taunting him as he lays dying on the campus of S. C. State University in 1968

I remember reading a story titled “The Morning After” in the Washington Post written by black columnist Eugene Robinson.  The story related to the election of America’s first Black President it almost made me bring up my breakfast of grits, eggs and sausage.  Robinson was interviewing Georgia Democrat and civil rights icon John Lewis and said something like “I think John Lewis is one of the most courageous men of the civil rights crusade.  I thought of the beating he took on the Pettis Edmond Bridge and the scars his body still bears.”  What makes Robinson’s observation so ridiculous is the fact that this brother has roots in Orangeburg, South Carolina.  His father taught at Claflin University during the height of the civil rights crusade and he does not have a clue.  The struggles of the pioneers in Clarendon and Orangeburg counties were never mentioned in his column.

The real heroes of the civil rights crusade were young black men Rev. Joseph DeLaine, Harry Briggs, Dr. Charles H. Thomas, Jr. or the three brothers who made the ultimate sacrifice, they gave their lives.  John Lewis’ contributions are commendable but they are pale in comparison.

 Faded Christmas card from Dr. King to Dr. Thomas and his family. Dr. King is seated on the left and Dr. Thomas is standing on the right at a meeting in his home in Orangeburg, S. C.

Delano Middleton, Samuel Hammond and Henry Smith died like animals with white cops standing over them with guns pointed and yelling “Die nigger die” and they did.  No man or woman in America should ever have to die like that, but they still are in places, like Florida, New York City, Ferguson and North Charleston.  For Eugene Robinson not to be aware of the sacrifices of those young men in the Orangeburg massacre is another crime in the black community.  But there he is in the Washington Post and on National television every week claiming to be an expert on Black America.  For this he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize?  Something is wrong with this picture!

In the State Capitol of Columbia South Carolina there stands a tall imposing stature of a man who stood and still stands for white supremacy—the late Senator Strom Thurmond.

During daylight hours he was seen preaching hate niggers and at night he was sleeping with one.  He fathered a black child out of wedlock and unlike some deadbeat dads he made sure she was properly cared for and received a good education.  She was enrolled at South Carolina State where he would often visit her to make sure the hired hands were doing their job properly.

Dr. Thomas and Senator Thurmond had several eyeball to eyeball confrontations during the movement.  They would later become great friends out of respect for each other.

When Dr. Thomas decided that he had enough of the “Player Haters” and envy and jealous Negroes in Orangeburg he moved to DC.  It was Strom Thurmond who recommended him for a Presidential appointment to the Richard Nixon White House.  Dr. Thomas would accept an appointment to become the Director of Equal Opportunity Employment for the United States Post Office.

Thanks to Dr. Thomas, Senator Thurmond and I became fast friends and he became a big supporter of Kids In Trouble, Inc.  One Christmas he assigned his office staff to help me coordinate my toys for tots Christmas party and wrote several letters of reference for me.

The late Senator Strom Thurmond celebrates the memory of the Late Dr. Charles H. Thomas, Jr.  L-R son-in-law Harold, daughter Hattie, wife Elease and Charles III.

In 2008 Barack Obama took his rightful place as the 44^th President of the United States of America.  Don’t believe the hype–there are a lot of Civil Rights wannabes jumping on the bandwagon claiming they paved the way for him.

Dr. Charles H. Thomas Jr. was inducted into the Black South Carolina Hall of Fame in 2005.

Congratulations to the trailblazing Tuskegee Airmen and the Little Rock 9 who all received invitations to the swearing in of President Barrack Obama.  Someone dropped the ball when they failed to invite The Thomas Circle.

Singing legend Sam Cooke had a concert in Columbia South Carolina during the height of the movement.  He performed in front of a segregated audience.  It is rumored that experience inspired him to write his classic “A Change Is Going to come.”

Sam Cooke was a prophet:

A CHANGE DID COME–

A CHANGE IN SENATOR STROM THURMOND

A CHANGE IN AMERICA????

THE CHANGE: BARACK OBAMA AS THE 44th PRESIDENT——-BUT MORE CHANGE IS NEEDED.