A great number of people across this nation wrung their hands and shook their heads as they watched the people’s eruption in Ferguson, Mo. They overwhelmingly believed that it could not happen in the cities they live in. The truth of the matter is that an untold number of cities are sitting on top of volcanoes. Have they forgotten the ’60s?
I was totally unaware of Ferguson, Mo. until it became nationwide news. However as I began to watch and read about the plight of Black residents I thought about the similarities of Black people in Allegheny County. First let’s analyze the similarities of police departments and lack of Blacks. Allegheny County police department is only 2 percent Black and none currently in supervisory capacity. In the year of 1987 a Republican commissioner Bob Cramner was responsible for appointing a Black man to the position of Superintendent of Allegheny County Police. That was 27 years ago. Secondly unemployment among Black men is at an all time high, and though contract awards are also at a record high, only one half of one percent of professional contracts are awarded to Blacks.
The city of Pittsburgh’s unemployment is abysmal and the lack of Blacks being afforded an opportunity to share in the American dream through the awarding of contracts is almost non-existent. The Pittsburgh Police Department consists of roughly 900 police and only 117 are Black and the majority of them will be retiring in the immediate future. I was privileged enough to have known most police chiefs but I knew the three Blacks personally, Chief Bill “Muggsy” Moore, Chief Earl Buford and Chief Nate Harper. I have no expectation of living long enough to know another Black chief in Pittsburgh.
Another similarity between Pittsburgh and Ferguson, Mo. is that the federal government is investigating the situation. They investigated the Jordan Miles case with negative results so there is no guarantee when the federal government is involved.
I do not advocate people throwing Molotov cocktails, shooting, looting, robbing or burning but I have always advocated that we as a people must stand up together and right the multitude of wrongs that we have condoned for a multitude of years, too many years, BY OUR SILENCE.
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(Louis “Hop” Kendrick is a weekly contributor to the Forum page.)
