Ethel Kennedy indirectly gets credit for a possible rapproachment between yours truly and the mayor of Indianapolis.
During a live “Afternoons with Amos” broadcast on WTLC-AM (1310) Monday at Forest Manor Multi Service Center, right after I talked live to Barack Obama supporter Atlanta (Georgia) Mayor Shirley Franklin, Mayor Greg Ballard made a surprise appearance — to our program and to Forest Manor Center.
Sixty-eight days after Ballard’s press secretary had leveled a ban (quickly rescinded) against me and WTLC for reasons we still don’t understand.
A jovial Mayor Ballard congratulated me on the air for remarks I’d made at last Friday’s King/Kennedy Commemoration. I commended him on his laudatory presence and remarks at the commemoration.
But, since this was Mayor Ballard’s first appearance on Black media in prime time and since he’s not given an interview to the Recorder, I asked him about two recent incidents that have greatly concerned our African-American community.
March 28th, a Black man, Henry Bryant, died after being shocked with a Taser gun and sprayed with a chemical agent during a disturbance at a Westside O’Charley’s restaurant. The incident shook many in our community who are leery at the use by police of the controversial Taser weapons.
Blacks aren’t the only ones concerned by the use of Taser weapons. Amnesty International, the worldwide human rights group, has documented over 290 Taser deaths in the U.S. since 2001.
Then Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi wimped out allowing a non-criminal diversion penalty for the police officer who kicked a Black youth while lying handcuffed on the ground inside a police command post area during Black Expo.
Despite eyewitnesses, including church members participating in the faith based patrol and despite the thousands who saw the police videotape that clearly showed Officer Adam Chappell kicking suspect Bryan Jeter; Brizzi allowed Chappell’s punishment to be attending a “training class.” No administrative punishment, no fine, no reprimand for Officer Chappell. Just go to a class.
I asked Mayor Ballard about these two incidents. First, the Taser death.
“I think that as most people understand whenever the executive office, the mayor, says something that can be used in court, to influence good or bad, and so you kinda of gotta remain silent on that officially. I don’t want either side to say that I’m influencing the judges. You’ve got to be very careful.”
But the mayor added, “That was a very sad case, actually.”
On the Officer Chappell case, the mayor again said he couldn’t comment out of concern of “undue influence.”
“When an executive says something, I’m really not trying to waffle here, but when an executive says something it can be cast as undue influence. And I just don’t want that to happen.”
I’m not sure how to take Mayor Ballard’s fear of creating “undue influence” as a reason not to speak to a community angry and concerned over these two incidents. A community which continues to warily view a mayor many feel has been seemingly disrespectful and disregarding of our Black community.
But whether its due to the good feelings of being together to remember what Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy stood for, or whether it’s the start of real spring weather, Mayor Ballard finally decided to start communicating with our African-American community, through its media.
It’s a start.
What I’m hearing in the streets
The first two independent polls show the Democratic primary race for governor to be a virtual tie. And the polls, one by Survey USA for Louisville and Cincinnati TV stations and another by WISH-TV/Channel 8 and South Bend and Fort Wayne media indicate that undecided African-American voters could decide the race.
Channel 8’s poll shows 22 percent of Black voters are undecided in the contest between Jill Long Thompson and Jim Shellinger. Survey USA says 25 percent of Blacks are undecided. Both polls have Thompson leading Shellinger among Blacks by 5 percent (Survey USA) and 10 percent (Channel 8).
Shellinger must capture a majority of Black votes in Indianapolis to win. How the two campaign over the next four weeks in the area containing 45 percent of Indiana’s Black voters will determine which one battles Gov. Mitch Daniels in November.
Meanwhile the two polls show a tightening race in the Democratic presidential fight in Indiana between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Survey USA has Clinton ahead 52 percent to 43 percent; while Channel 8 has Clinton and Obama nearly tied at 49 percent to 46 percent.
Both polls show Obama with the African-American vote on lockdown. Channel 8 has Obama ahead among Blacks 81 percent to 16 percent; Survey USA says its Obama 79 percent to 21 percent. The Clinton campaign’s challenge is trying to increase their meager Black support by May 6th.
In terms of the two polls’ sampling of Blacks; 11 percent of Survey USA’s 530 likely voter respondents were Black; 12 percent of Channel 8’s 400 respondents were Black.
Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert Kennedy, was moved in her first visit to the place where her husband gave one of the most moving political speeches in American history; on the night 40 years ago when Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated.
The 80-year-old Mrs. Kennedy was the highlight of this year’s King/Kennedy commemoration at School 27 and King Park. Robert Kennedy’s son Max, ninth of his and Ethel’s 11 children, did most of the talking and was as humble and eloquent as his father.
Ethel Kennedy and Max Kennedy are strong Obama supporters. Ethel Kennedy says Obama “is so like Bobby” adding “With courage, caring, and charisma, Sen. Obama is leading us toward a kinder, gentler world.”
Besides campaigning in Indianapolis, the Kennedys campaigned in Fishers and South Bend.
Also impressive was former Congressman Lee Hamilton, co-chair of the 9/11 Commission who endorsed Obama last week. Hamilton’s nod could help Obama among white men in Southern Indiana, Hamilton’s base.
IUPUI has renamed the building housing its University College and IUPUI’s Multi-Cultural Center as the Dr. Joseph L. Taylor Building. The building at 815 W. Michigan St. will be named after the legendary professor, educator and leader who was the first dean of IUPUI’s School of Liberal Arts and one of the fathers of the campus.
I believe the Dr. Joseph Taylor Building will be the first building on the IUPUI campus named after an African-American male. And it is a well-deserved honor. Though, if Taylor were here he’d be embarrassed by the fuss.
See ‘ya next week.
Amos Brown’s opinions are not necessarily those of the Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper. You can contact him at (317) 221-0915 or by e-mail at ACBROWN@AOL.COM.
