Dawdling on the Corner

The new paperback book has 307 pages and the simple title Justice. It is the last of five volumes in the second report of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, first created by Congress in 1957. Justice carries a chilling text about police brutality in both the South and the North--and it stands as a grave indictment, since its facts were carefully investigated by field agents and it was signed by all six of the noted educators who comprise the commission.*

The bluntly frank report tells of a police officer, referred to only as "Y," in Dawson, Ga., who arrested Negro James Brazier for speeding in November 1957. It quotes Brazier: "When I first entered the door of the jail, 'Y' hit me on the back of the head and knocked me down and said, 'You smart son-of-a-bitch, I been wanting to get my hands on you for a long time.' I said, 'Why you want me for?' 'Y' said, 'You is a nigger who is buying new cars and we can't hardly live. I'll get you yet.'" When Brazier was arrested again five months later by the same officer, Brazier's wife related: " 'Y' then said, 'I told you I would get you.' James said, 'What do you want to hurt me for? I ain't done nothing. I got a heap of little chillun.' 'Y' said, I don't give a goddam how many children you got, you're going away from here.' 'Y' pulled out his pistol and stuck it against James's stomach."

Beaten to Death. Continues the report: "Brazier's ten-year-old son pleaded with the officers to stop beating his father and was knocked to the ground by 'Y'; the victim was thrown onto the floor of the police car with his legs dangling outside. 'Y' kicked him twice in the groin, slammed the car door on his legs, threw a hat full of sand into his bloody face, and drove off." Brazier died five days later, and "Y" was never punished.

Shifting to the North, the report cites Chicago police treatment of Negro James Monroe and his family, who were awakened in their West Side apartment at 5:45 a.m. by 13 police officers, ostensibly investigating a murder. The police, says Justice, "broke through two doors, woke the Monroe couple with flashlights, and forced them at gun point to leave their bed and stand naked in the center of the living room. The officers roused the six Monroe children and herded them into the living room. Detective Frank Pape struck Mr. Monroe several times with his flashlight, calling him 'nigger' and 'black boy.' Another officer pushed Mrs. Monroe. Other officers hit and kicked several of the children and pushed them to the floor. The police ransacked every room, throwing clothing from closets to the floor, dumping drawers, ripping mattress covers." The officers were not punished, although Monroe has carried a suit to the Supreme Court, is still seeking a civil judgment.

Nursing & Flouting. The commission's report concedes that such cases may be "more dramatic than most," but it declares that police brutality is "a serious problem throughout the U.S.," that Negroes suffer from it most, and that "there are American citizens in the Deep South today who live in fear, partly because they do not know if local policemen will help them or the mob when violence strikes." To remedy the situation, the commission recommends federal grants to upgrade state and local police forces, a federal law permitting police victims to sue local governments instead of only the officers, who can seldom pay adequate judgments, and an amendment to federal law specifically banning police brutality and forced confessions.

Going beyond the report of the panel, Father Hesburgh issued a separate statement: "Personally, I don't care if the U.S. gets the first man on the moon if while this is happening on a crash basis we dawdle along here on our corner of the earth, nursing our prejudices, flouting our magnificent Constitution, ignoring the central moral problem of our times, and appearing hypocrites to all the world."

*Members of the scholarly panel: Chairman Dr. John A. Hannah, president of Michigan State University; Dr. Robert S. Rankin, chairman of Duke University's political science department; Robert G. Storey, former dean of the Southern Methodist University Law School; Spottswood W. Robinson 3rd, dean of Howard University Law School; Erwin N. Griswold, dean of Harvard Law School; the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, president of Notre Dame University.

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