There’s a reason that almost every black person you know is paranoid. The relationship between communities of color and law enforcement is not one of mutual understanding or trust. There’s a suspicion that runs deep, thanks to a tragic history etched in blood and borne out by newspaper headlines every week somewhere in America.
Locally, the latest occasion for paranoia was an advisory posted by the Fox Chapel Borough Police Department last Thursday. Taken on its face, the short version reads like a master class on implicit bias:
“A tall thin light-skinned African-American male was seen walking on Tree Farm Road. This man was possibly distributing political materials.”
A longer text version of the advisory put a little more meat on the bones, but not much:
“A resident from Tree Farm Road reported observing a tall, light-skinned African-American male, wearing a green tee shirt and driving a gold Toyota, walking up to homes on the street. The male may have been distributing political materials as police investigation revealed that most homes had them attached to the front doors. Residents are requested to use the 911 center to report suspicious persons.”
The outrage on social media from people of all backgrounds and persuasions was swift. What, exactly, did the tall, light-skinned African American male do to attract the suspicion of the Fox Chapel resident who called it in?
Since we’re a month away from a national election, there shouldn’t be anything inherently strange about someone sticking political brochures on doors. Why did the Fox Chapel police post an advisory as if there was something suspicious about it?
Posting on Facebook on Friday, Maria Lauro of Pittsburgh wrote: “If the suspect in question were white, they wouldn’t have published this about a similar looking white guy distributing political literature,” she wrote, summarizing the dominant sentiment. “This was posted because some racist in Fox Chapel was afraid of a black person in his/her neighborhood.”
History is on Ms. Lauro’s side for assuming this, but I felt there had to be more to the story, so I reached out to Fox Chapel police Chief David M. Laux for comment. A 34-year veteran of the force and its boss for the past 18 years, Chief Laux has been fielding calls about the advisory since it appeared.
The first thing he wanted to do was allay any fears that Fox Chapel police would be scooping up random light-skinned black guys distributing political fliers for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Katie McGinty. He said that all of his officers understand that passing out political fliers is legal and that the individual in the advisory has nothing to fear.
Chief Laux then shared the backstory for the advisory that sounded plausible to me. Nine days earlier, a man roughly matching the description of the guy in the advisory was arrested for burglary in Fox Chapel. The woman who called in the tip about the black guy walking down Tree Farm Road happens to be “best friends” with the burglary victim. She assumed the burglar had somehow returned to the neighborhood. (As it happens, he is in custody at Allegheny County Jail.)
Chief Laux copped to crafting an inelegant advisory, blaming character limitations of the format and desiring “not to write a novel” explaining the whole back story. He sounded genuinely sheepish about it, adding: “I can see how someone might misconstrue what happened.”
His intention was to convey to the public that the guy distributing political fliers wasn’t anything to be concerned about. Unfortunately, the advisory had the opposite effect because of the line about contacting the police about suspicious persons tacked on the end. People read it as a comment about the canvasser and not routine advice. Chief Laux regrets the confusion.
Fox Chapel’s 11-man police force has no women or blacks on it. This troubles Chief Laux. “For whatever reason, women and African-Americans haven’t applied for these jobs,” he said, adding that there is no residency requirement. He lives in a nearby community and couldn’t afford a house in the community he patrols and protects every day. (According to U.S. Census data, the median value of a house is $521,400.)
It was a relief to hear Chief Laux’s explanation. Last week, McKeesport Officer Melissa Adamson was fired by her department for a racist Snapchat selfie she took while in uniform. Charles Wasko, the mayor of West York in south-central Pennsylvania, is being pressured to step down because of his numerous and blatantly racist Facebook posts. Mr. Wasko oversees the cops in his town.
It’s clear to me that what happened in Fox Chapel last week was just a misunderstanding. Fortunately, no one died as a result of a bad call this time around.
Tony Norman: tnorman@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1631. Twitter @TonyNormanPG.
First Published: October 4, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
