“MLK - Has His Dream Been Deferred?!” by Sandy Joyce dfw.cbslocal/2014/01/23/discovery-of-noose-draws-concern-from-fort-worth-police-association/ FORT WORTH, TEXAS - Has his dream been deferred?! Nooses and bullwhips brandished blatantly in the Fort Worth Police Department’s offices during roll call indicate that although this is 2014, the elephant is still in the room and almost everyone is pretending that it is not there…so no one has been talking about it. Sunday January 19th, 2014 about 4pm, late afternoon, at the steps of the old courthouse (Fort Worth’s Tarrant County Courthouse, the very historic brownstone filled with granite stone, broad staircases, beautifully ornately appointed and holding so much history) Rev. Kyev P. Tatum has dared to break the silence! Along with retired police officer Herman Young, a press conference was held telling the curdling truth. With prayers by Reverend Griggs of Sunshine COGIC Church, the press and press conference attendees would now hear the dreadful happenings here in our beloved Fort Worth community. Retired Officer Young was “Officer of the Year” 1992/93. There has been only one other African American to have received this distinction. Mr. Young is not a fired, disgruntled employee. He is now a citizen, concerned with the fact that only approximately two weeks ago, in 2014, so near Dr. King’s birthday, atrocities like unto vigilantism or the Klu Klux Klan still happen here where he lives and has given excellent and recognized service. Herman Young began his revealing “Show and Tell” as he pulled an actual noose from a large black plastic bag. The large strong looped rope tightly coiled around itself just above the horrifying loophole that one’s head would be pushed through was bone chilling just to see. Although many persons have possibly seen a lasso for roping cattle or horses, the thickness of a noose is quite different and the tightness of the strands of the rope are also so frighteningly different. Today’s generation facing the thought of lynching is horrifying but an ominous grotesque noose, such as the one from FWPD can still chill and curdle the blood and cause the hair on one’s neck to stand up. This should be a different day! Undoubtedly, it should be a day when Dr. King’s dream has been realized…when as per MLK, “An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” This should not have been allowed. It is injustice…it is literally criminal and public silence must end. “Noose Neckties” are a symbol of bigotry and hatred. They scream that ‘I don’t like you, I don’t want you here and that I want you dead!’ Young’s concern is that if this kind of bullying and intimidation can happen within the police department’s own offices, on the inside, as it were, it is evident what is happening on the outside to Fort Worth citizens of color, the thousand that are crying out about excessive use of force by our police department is sadly very real. On the inside, Young says that epithets such as the “N” word are used…that a bull whip was brandished which was intimidating. This incident let fear reign. According to Young, unnecessary humiliation, bullying and such incidents are being unbelievably defended as just teasing and are kept from making public record and there needs to be an open records request. Then, of course, there is the Fornash fiasco. Officer Tim Fornash lied about his culpability in the Klanish bigotry and Chief Halstead knows it. Fornash was merely given a slap on the wrist and still wears his badge, carries his gun, a taser, billy-club, mace (the whole arsenal of weaponry carried by policemen, not to mention driving the two-ton vehicle which in essence is definitely tantamount to being another deadly weapon. According to Young, to all the cries for justice, the response is, ‘Give us time’ to address the issue while all the time, the 180 day limit is, like the clock at a Super Bowl game being run out by the other team. Chief Halstead “explains” that Fornash has psychological problems and is on medication. This is his explanation why the status quo is still as it is. The questions, now that the elephant’s presence has been addressed, are how is it that a commissioned officer got a pass to call President Barak Obama a bum and referred to the President of these United States as the African American’s half-black God. How is it that Chief Jeffrey Halstead can be aware and allow hatred and bigotry to reign in FWPD. If the leaders do not set a tone for light over darkness, truth over lies and unity and love over hate and bigotry, our American Dream is a lie and Dr. King’s Dream is still being deferred… What happens to a dream deferred?! Hench, at the press conference, the cry was to Madam Mayor to get this Chief ‘who would be Klan’ packing…to stand and say, “No more!” to hatred, bullying and discrimination and allow no indulgence of this type of behavior. The cry is for the sleeping Panthers around “Panther City” to awake and arise to fiercely protect justice and the Cowboys of “Cowtown” are implored to demonstrate the culture that our fair city claims. We are all those sleeping Panthers. We are all those cultureless cowboys if we do not stand and say, No more! -- Nooses, bullwhips and epithets are not friendly teasing by any means! – Dr. King’s dream will not be deferred!
Posted on: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 03:43:53 +0000
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