A popular subject on social media is why the black community does not support Mayor Pete Buttigieg for president. The reason’s offered from mostly white people range from the black community being homophobic to the fact that black people just need to get to know the 37-year old Mayor.
Clearly, black people have a problem with the obvious #WhitePrivilege that enables a 37-year old with minimal experience who lost his race to become Indiana State Treasurer and failed in his attempt to become Chair of the DNC. But it’s much more than that.
Kudos to The Root’s @MichaelHarriot for breaking down one of the major problems black people have with Mayor Pete – how he dealt with the racism within his own police department. Since criminal justice and police brutality are big issues, the fact that he felt the need to demote Police Chief Boykins and other black men in leadership is a clear indication that the Mayor is not the right candidate for President of the United States. He can’t even address racism and diversity in the small community of South Bend, why would we select him to run the USA?
In January 2012, Pete Buttigieg stepped into the South Bend, Ind., mayor’s office after winning the city’s first open mayoral election in 24 years. South Bend had three African Americans in visible high level and public leadership positions: Mayor’s Assistant Lynn Coleman; Fire Chief Howard Buchanon and Police Chief Darryl Boykins.
Within three months, all three would be gone.
Boykins had served as a police officer in South Bend for 27 years before he was appointed as the city’s first (and to date, only) black police chief in 2007. In 2011, after the city’s police telephone recording system crashed, SBPD Communications Director Karen DePaepe discovered recordings of white officers allegedly using racist rhetoric and concocting a way to get rid of Boykins with the help of top donors to Buttigieg’s then-ongoing mayoral campaign. DePaepe made five cassette tapes of the most egregious remarks and described them in legal documents the city has had for years. One officer allegedly said: “It will be a fun time when all white people are in charge.”
Soon after Buttigieg took office, word got out about the tapes and the officers complained that the recordings violated the Federal Wiretap Act. Even though the recording system had been in place for more than a decade, its existence somehow became the black guy’s fault.
According to Boykins’ eventual racial-discrimination lawsuit, Buttigieg’s chief of staff, Mike Schmuhl, “with Buttigieg’s full and conspiratorial agreement,” told Boykins the feds were investigating him and the only way for Boykins to avoid prosecution was to resign as South Bend police chief.
That was not true.
Please visit TheRoot.com for this excellent story on “Mayor Pete’s Invisible Black Police”
https://www.theroot.com/mayor-pete-s-invisible-black-police-1840727624