Mugged: Racial Demagoguery From the Seventies to Obama

  7. Conrad Black, The Invincible Quest: The Life of Richard Milhous Nixon (McClelland & Stewart, 2007) at 647.

  8. Hannity & Colmes, FOX News, November 17, 2004.

  9. Walter V. Robinson, “Professor’s Past in Doubt: Discrepancies Surface in Claim of Vietnam Duty,” Boston Globe, June 18, 2001.

  10. Adrian Havill, Deep Truth: The Lives of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein (Birch Lane Press, 1993) at 19–20 and 221–23.

  11. Thomas Sowell, Black Rednecks and White Liberals (Encounter Books, 2005), Chapter 1, passim. See also David Hackett Fischer, Albion’s Seed (Oxford University Press, 1989) and James Webb, Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America (Broadway Books, 2004).

  12. Sowell, Black Rednecks

  13. Ibid. at 22.

  14. Ibid. at 23.

  15. Fischer, Albion’s Seed at 737.

  16. Albion’s Seed at 770.

  17. Webb, Born Fighting at 168.

  18. Sowell, Black Rednecks at 25 (internal quotations omitted).

  19. The verdict from the jury of eleven blacks and one white was “not guilty by reason of insanity.” 83 percent of Americans disagreed with the verdict, according to an ABC poll the day after the verdict. Doug Linder, “The Trial of John W. Hinckley, Jr.,” UMKC Faculty Projects (2008), available at http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hinckley/hinckleyaccount.html.

  20. Kerwin Swint, Mudslingers: The Twenty-Five Dirtiest Political Campaigns of All Time (Union Square Press, 2008) at 228.

  21. See, e.g., Rick Bragg, “Quietly, Alabama Troopers Escort Wallace for Last Time,” New York Times, September 17, 1998; “George C. Wallace” (1963–67, 1971–79, 1983–87), Encyclopedia of Alabama, available at http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1676.

  22. Black Rednecks at 1.

  23. Fred Siegel, The Future Once Happened Here (Encounter Books, 1997) at 38.

  24. Only between 1960 and 1966, more then 600,000 blacks migrated out of the South to the North and West. Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, Summary of Report, Chapter 6.

  25. “The Negro Crime Rate: A Failure in Integration,” Time, April 21, 1958, 16–20. Quoted in Michael W. Flamm, “‘Law and order’ at Large: The New York Civilian Review Board Referendum of 1966 and the Crisis of Liberalism,” The Historian, March 22, 2002.

  26. Sowell, Black Rednecks at 121–22.

  27. Erol Ricketts, “The Origin of Black Female-Headed Families,” Focus, Spring/Summer 1989, 32–37, available at http://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/focus/pdfs/foc121e.pdf.

  28. Siegel, The Future Once Happened Here.

  29. Mickey Kaus, The End of Equality (Basic Books, 1995) at 111.

  30. Kaus, The End of Equality at 110–12.

  31. Ricketts, “The Origin of Black Female-Headed Families” at 32–37.

  32. Thomas Sowell, The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy (Basic Books, 1995) at 61.

  33. Ricketts, “The Origin of Black Female-Headed Families” at 32–37.

  34. About 6 percent of both blacks and whites were widowed; 15 percent of blacks were divorced or separated, compared to 11.9 percent of whites. America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2010, U.S. Census, 2010, Table A1, available at http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hh-fam/cps2010.html.

  35. Josh Getlin, Joyce: “Celebrity of Homeless Dispute in N.Y.,” Los Angeles Times, December 20, 1987.

  36. Siegel, The Future Once Happened Here at 205.

  37. The Future Once Happened Here at 206.

  38. William J. Stuntz, “The Pathological Politics of Criminal Law,” Michigan Law Review, December 1, 2001 (citing U.S. Dep’t Of Justice, Crime In The United States 1972: Uniform Crime Reports, 1973, at 61 table 1).

  39. Brent Staples, “When Only Monsters Are Real,” New York Times, November 21, 1993.

  40. Pew Social Trends, “Optimism about Black Progress Declines,” November 13, 2007, available at http://pewsocialtrends.org/files/2010/10/Race-2007.pdf; See also Juan Williams, “One Race Divisible,” Washington Post, November 14, 2007; Gary Kamiya, “Is Race Dying?” Salon.com, November 26, 2007.

  CHAPTER 2: INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN WHITE

  1. Robert F. Williams, Negroes with Guns (Marzani & Munsell, 1962).

  2. Eric Pace, “Jimmy (the Greek) Snyder, 76, Is Dead: A Sports Oddsmaker,” New York Times, April 22, 1996.

  3. Vera Haller, “Judge to Decide Case Against Policeman Who Shot Woman During Eviction,” Associated Press, January 12, 1987.

  4. Selwyn Raab, “State Judge Dismisses Indictment of Officer in the Bumpurs Killing,” New York Times, April 13, 1985.

  5. Selwyn Raab, “Angry Outburst by Spectators Disrupts Start of Bumpurs Trial,” New York Times, January 13, 1987.

  6. Frank J. Prial, “Amid Protest, Bumpurs Case Nears Its End,” New York Times, February 18, 1987; Raab, “Angry Outburst by Spectators Disrupts Start of Bumpurs Trial.”

  7. “Testimony Barred in Graffiti Arrest,” New York Times, November 2, 1983.

  8. “Account Is Read of Officer’s Bid to Curb Stewart,” New York Times, August 20, 1985.

  9. Isabel Wilkerson, “Gross Testifies on Alcohol’s Role in Stewart Death,” New York Times, October 17, 1985.

  10. Editorial: “Transit Police on Trial,” New York Times, June 9, 1984.

  11. Sam Roberts, “Death Stirs Police Burtality Charges,” New York Times, September 29, 1983.

  12. Philip Shenon, “Juror Says Prosecutors Fought Murder Counts,” New York Times, August 25, 1984.

  13. “12 Cases: Synopses of the Issues and the Panel’s Conclusions,” New York Times, April 24, 1985; Richard Levine, “Charge Against Officer in Stewart Case Is Dropped,” New York Times, October 28, 1987; Kevin Sack, “New York Regents Drop Charges Against Former Medical Examiner” New York Times, July 28, 1990.

  14. “12 Cases: Synopses of the Issues and the Panel’s Conclusions,” New York Times, April 24, 1985

  15. The accusations against Dr. Gross led to state and city investigations into the examiner’s conduct. He responded with defamation suits against the New York Times and various pathologists, and in the end he was mostly cleared, accused of mismanagement by the state health board and fired by Mayor Ed Koch. Dr. Gross’s libel suit was dismissed because of the impossible standard for such claims by public figures.

  16. Editorial: “Transit Police on Trial.”

  17. Editorial: “How to Remember Michael Stewart,” New York Times, November 26, 1985.

  18. “Voices from the Jury Box,” New York Times, January 15, 1986.

  19. Isabel Wilkerson, “Stewart Decision In, the Trial Goes on Trial,” New York Times, December 1, 1985.

  20. Samuel G. Freedman, “To Some, Davis Is ‘Hero’ Amid Attacks on Blacks,” New York Times, January 2, 1987.

  21. Editorial: “The Message of the Davis Case,” New York Times, November 25, 1988.

  22. Editorial: “How to Remember Michael Stewart.”

  23. Editorial: “The Crown Heights Acquittal,” New York Times, October 31, 1992.

  24. Donatella Lorch, “2d Officer Recounts Details of Arrest in Crown Heights,” New York Times, October 1, 1992.

  25. See, e.g., Charles J. Hynes, district attorney, Kings County, “Letter to the Editor: Crown Heights Trial Had Vigorous Prosecution.” New York Times, April 7, 1998.

  26. Robert D. McFadden, “Teen-Ager Acquitted in Slaying during ’91 Crown Heights Melee,” New York Times, October 30, 1992.

  27. Donatella Lorch, “Inquiries Set in ’91 Slaying in Crown Hts.,” New York Times, October 31, 1992.

  28. Andy Newman, “In Twist, Defendant Admits to Stabbing in Crown Hts. in ’91,” New York Times, April 29, 2003.

  29. Editorial: “The Crown Heights Acquittal,” New York Times, October 31, 1992.

  30. “Is This Justice?” (New York) Newsday, October 31, 1992.

  31. McFadden, “Teen-Ager Acquitted in Slaying.”

  32. See, e.g.,
Bob Liff, “PBA Head: Dinkins Poured Gas on Riot,” Newsday (New York), July 14, 1992; Samuel Maull, “DA: Washington Heights Cop Cleared Because Witnesses Unreliable,” Associated Press September 10, 1992.

  33. James Dao, “Tension in Washington Heights,” New York Times, July 8, 1992.

  34. Peter Hellman, “The Cop and the Riot,” New York magazine, November 2, 1992.

  35. See, e.g., “District Attorney’s Findings Regarding the Police Killing of Jose Garcia,” New York Times, September 11, 1992; M. P. McQueen, “Calm on Clear Day,” Newsday (New York), September 11, 1992.

  36. Hellman, “The Cop and the Riot.”

  37. Connie Chung and Giselle Fernandez, “Violence Breaks Out in New York in a Case of Police Brutality,” CBS Evening News, July 7, 1992.

  38. Dennis Hevesi, “Upper Manhattan Block Erupts after a Man Is Killed in Struggle with a Policeman,” New York Times, July 5, 1992.

  39. James Dao, “Angered by Police Killing, a Neighborhood Erupts,” New York Times, July 7, 1992.

  40. Alfred Lubrano, “He Didn’t Want to Die in New York,” (New York) Newsday, July 6, 1992.

  41. Jim Dwyer, “Lies, Whispers in Garcia Case,” (New York) Newsday, July 6, 1992.

  42. See, e.g., “District Attorney’s Findings Regarding the Police Killing of Jose Garcia” and “Calm on Clear Day.”

  43. Hellman, “The Cop and the Riot.”

  44. See, e.g., “District Attorney’s Findings Regarding the Police Killing of Jose Garcia.”

  45. Maull, “DA: Washington Heights Cop Cleared Because Witnesses Unreliable.”

  46. McQueen, “Calm on Clear Day.”

  47. “No Inquiry in Heights Case,” New York Times, September 18, 1992; Rose Marie Arce, “Garcia Kin Want Probe,” (New York) Newsday, September 18, 1992.

  CHAPTER 3: GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN BLACK

  1. Jill Nelson, “Up Against the System,” Washington Post, May 10, 1987. (Full quote: Maddox is “making all of us confront the barriers of our own racism and this is particularly difficult for progressive whites, because we’re so self-serving about our racism.”)

  2. Column reprinted in Nelson George, Buppies, B-boys, Baps, and Bohos: Notes on Post-Soul Black Culture (Da Capo Press, 2001) at 223–40.

  3. George at 239.

  4. Gary Langer, “Tale of Two Worlds, and One Tragedy,” Associated Press, June 23, 1985.

  5. George at 238.

  6. Jane Rosen, “Shooting Deepens Race Fears: Killing Black Youth by White Policeman in New York Sparks Race Violence Fears,” (London) Guardian, June 17, 1985.

  7. Editorial: “The Death of Edmund Perry,” New York Times, June 23, 1985.

  8. Tom Morganthau, “Two with Too Much to Lose,” Newsweek, July 15, 1985.

  9. See, e.g., Crystal Nix, “Inner City, Elite Campus: How 2 Worlds Jar,” New York Times, January 4, 1986.

  “The tensions of living in two worlds became part of the story of 17-year-old Edmund Perry, an honors graduate at Phillips Exeter Academy who was shot to death by a plainclothes police officer near Morningside Park last summer in what the police described as an attempted robbery.”

  10. “Using the Stage to Voice Feelings about Racism,” New York Times, April 30, 1989.

  11. Dorothy J. Gaiter, “To Be Black and Male Is Dangerous in U.S.,” Miami Herald, July 11, 1985.

  12. See, e.g., Michael Coakley, “Violence Ends a Black Success Story,” Chicago Tribune, August 15, 1985.

  13. Tom Morganthau, “Goetz: Victim or Villain?” Newsweek, April 1, 1985.

  14. See, e.g., Robert D. McFadden, “Justice Drops All Major Charges Against Goetz in Shooting on IRT,” New York Times, January 17, 1986; Samuel Maull, “Defense Lawyer Argues That Charges Against Goetz Be Dropped,” The Associated Press, November 26, 1985 (citing Darrell Cabey’s interview with the Daily News’s Jimmy Breslin that “his three friends intended to rob Goetz because ‘he looked like easy bait.…He looked like he had money.’”).

  15. In addition, a secretary who had been sitting on a nearby park bench testified that just before the shooting, two black men passed her and she heard someone say, “Give me what you have.” M. A. Farber, “Testimony Ends in Assault Trial of Jonah Perry,” New York Times, January 17, 1986.

  16. M. A. Farber, “Officer Tells of Shooting Honors Student to Death,” New York Times, January 14, 1986; M. A. Farber, “Last Arguments Offered in Trial of Jonah Perry,” New York Times, January 22, 1986.

  17. M. A. Farber, “Jonah Perry Acquitted of Mugging Officer Who Fatally Shot Brother,” New York Times, January 23, 1986.

  18. George at 232.

  19. According to Department of Justice statistics, for example, in 1985—the year Perry was shot—black males committed nearly as many murders (6,043) as white males (6,943), although blacks are only 12 percent of the population. C. Puzzanchera and W. Kang (2011). “Easy Access to the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Reports: 1980–2009.” Available at http://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/ezashr/.

  20. Jill Nelson, “Up Against the System,” Washington Post, May 10, 1987.

  21. See, e.g., “Police Reportedly Left Barry Investigation on Their Own,” United Press International, January 11, 1989; Robert Pear, “2d Investigation Touches Capital Mayor,” New York Times, January 1, 1989.

  22. Vincent McCraw, “Rally Gives Barry Hero’s Welcome, Washington Times, July 3, 1990.

  23. See, e.g., McCraw, “Rally Gives Barry Hero’s Welcome”; Karl Vick, “Barry Fights to Regain Respect Despite Trial, (Florida) St. Petersburg Times, July 6, 1990.

  24. Vick, “Barry Fights to Regain Respect.”

  25. Ibid.

  26. Stephanie Saul, “Barry Trial Accents Race Issue,” (New York) Newsday, July 19, 1990.

  27. Gregory Freeman, “Marion Barry’s Battle for Public Opinion Engrosses Many Blacks,” (Missouri) St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 6, 1990.

  28. Vick, “Barry Fights to Regain Respect.”

  29. Ibid.

  30. Freeman, “Marion Barry’s Battle for Public Opinion.”

  31. Vick, “Barry Fights to Regain Respect.”

  32. Elsa Walsh and Barton Gellman, “Chasm Divided Jurors in Barry Drug Trial,” Washington Post, August 23, 1990.

  33. Ibid.

  34. Michael Abramowitz and Rene Sanchez, “Barry Basks in Glow of ‘Donahue,’” Washington Post, November 1, 1990.

  35. Howard S. Gantman, “NAACP Director Decries ‘Harassment’ of Black Officials,” United Press International, July 8, 1990.

  36. Abramowitz and Sanchez, “Barry Basks in Glow of ‘Donahue.’”

  37. Lynn Sherr, “Who Is Ed Summers? Carjack Killer or Framed Innocent?” 20/20, ABC News, June 3, 1994.

  38. Barbara Campbell, “In Cold Blood?” New York magazine, March 7, 1994. Available at http://books.google.com/books?id=XOMCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA32&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false.

  39. Joseph Berger, “Man Guilty on All Counts in Carjacking,” New York Times, December 16, 1994.

  40. John Sullivan, “Abduction Suspect Wanted a Car, But Would He Kill for It?” New York Times, March 21, 1996.

  41. Chambers’s famed “Fifth Avenue townhouse,” for example, was one apartment in a townhouse on 90th St. acquired through the miracle of another rent-controlled apartment going co-op. Before Giuliani, 90th St. was getting pretty close to Harlem. At the time of Chambers’s arrest, his mother was many months behind in rent. Nonetheless, Chambers was consistently described as living in a “Fifth Avenue townhouse.” See, generally, Linda Wolfe, Wasted: The Preppie Murder (iUniverse, 2000).

  42. See, e.g., Samuel G. Freedman, “Darkness Beneath the Glitter: Life of Suspect in Park Slaying,” New York Times, August 28, 1986; Esther Pessin, “Accused Central Park Killer Charged With Burglaries,” United Press International, December 16, 1986; Margot Hornblower, “A Murder among Manhattan’s Elite,” Washington Post, August 30, 1986.

  43. Editorial: “The Dirty Little Secret,” New York Times, December 23, 1986.

  44. Gary Langer,
“Civic Leaders Call for Calm in Face of Racial Attacks,” Associated Press, December 24, 1986.

  45. Gary Langer, “Racial Attack Victim Grimes Is Arrested on Assault Charge,” Associated Press, December 27, 1986.

  46. Jack Beatty, “Howard Beach Portents,” New York Times, January 7, 1987.

  47. Dan Collins, “A Bitter Bite of the Big Apple,” U.S. News & World Report, January 12, 1987.

  48. Sydney P. Freedberg, “Marchers Denounce Racism: Queens Protesters Met by Hostility,” Miami Herald, December 28, 1986.

  49. “Homicide Trends in the U.S., Trends by Race,” Bureau of Justice Statistics. Available at http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/homicide/tables/ovracetab.cfm.

  50. “Week in Review: Not So Simple as a Lynching,” New York Times, December 28, 1986.

  51. See, e.g., Todd S. Purdum, “Man Held in Design Student’s Murder,” New York Times, May 3, 1986; People v. Anthony Neal Jenkins, Sup. Ct. NY, APP DIV, 2d Dept, September 30, 1991. Available at http://ny.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.19910930_0050508.NY.htm/qx.

  52. Samuel G. Freedman, “New York Race Tension Is Rising Despite Gains,” New York Times, March 29, 1987.

  53. Jimmy Breslin, “Ugliness of Birmingham Returns—in New York,” Toronto Star, January 4, 1987.

  54. See, e.g., Josh Getlin, “Rage and Outrage: Jimmy Breslin’s Racist, Newsroom Pique Provokes a Nationwide Furor,” Los Angeles Times, May 15, 1990.

  55. Jack Beatty, “Howard Beach Portents.”

  56. Robert D. McFadden, “The Howard Beach Inquiry: Many Key Questions Persist,” New York Times, December 28, 1986.

  57. Virginia Byrne, “Police Sent to Howard Beach as Murder Charges Dropped,” Associated Press, December 30, 1986.

  58. See, e.g., Editorial: “Victory for Reason on Howard Beach,” New York Times, August 5, 1989; “Convictions, Sentences Upheld for Howard Beach Defendants,” Associated Press, July 31, 1989.

  59. Charles J. Hynes, Incident at Howard Beach (iUniverse, 2011) at 47.

  60. Mark Mooney, “Howard Beach Case Ringleader Deported,” Daily News, August 16, 2001.

  61. See, e.g., “No Remorse, No Sense of Guilt,” (New York), Newsday January 23, 1988.