Support for the Badge

Both the setting and the action are cruelly familiar: the Glenville area of Cleveland, a black neighborhood with a history of racial militance, frequent crime, hostility between residents and police. Late at night, two white cops stop two young blacks in a car for running a stop sign; the driver cannot produce a license, but suddenly there is a gun in his hand and he is firing. One policeman, Joseph Tracz, 27, is killed. The other, Frederick Fulton, 28, is seriously wounded.

What set last week's violence apart from similar assaults on police was the community's response. Law-abiding residents of Glenville had been seeking better protection from hoodlums and reckless drivers, realizing that blacks rather than whites are the most frequent victims of ghetto crime. Cleveland Mayor Carl Stokes, who is black, capitalized on this realization in a televised appeal to Glenville: "You cannot have this kind of violence and acts against police while at the same time a neighborhood is crying out for more law enforcement. You can't have it both ways. You can't have police protection and police shot."

Stokes also called on the people to "support the police with the maximum information that may lead to the apprehension of those who were part of this crime." The police, meanwhile, identified two suspects, Leonard Miller, 23, and Eddie Hampton, 21. Though neither suspect had been captured by week's end, Stokes' plea produced results. Police received a number of calls from neighborhood residents who had information about the crime. Help also came from Miller's mother and sister, who reported to police that Leonard had telephoned them asking for assistance. They refused.

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