The black community vs.
the Monticello police department --
time for changes
MONTICELLO - December 25, 1993, Dudley Fuller; March 25, 1994, Rita Roland; November 6, 1994, Carolyn Brown Bolden; December 6, 1994, Johnny Johnson; May 23, 1995, Dorene DeBole; and July 15, 1995, James Tomlinson. What do each of these six persons have in common? They have been only the more recent victims of brutal beatings by the members of the Monticello Police Department.
These are Village of Monticello citizens, whose problems with the police are, admittedly, not new. But whose complaints against the police are filed as suits for alleged brutality of one form or another. The last, James Tomlinson, has been only the more brutal of the beatings. What is this all about?
At a recent board of trustees meeting, Jesse York, a member of the Monticello Human Rights Commission, had words with police chief Michael Brennan, when he complained that the police beatings of black citizens was way out of hand. "Who are these guys," York said to the chief. "You can't say, `Let's lay these guys off?'" Several official investigations of the Tomlinson beating are now underway.
But the issue surrounding this one beating apparently has sparked more concern about other beatings. What is going on? And why is it that most of the complaints about police brutality involve the same small percentage of officers over and again? Why is this?
The officers involved in the Tomlinson beating apparently have been placed on "desk duty" pending the outcome of the investigations surrounding the incident. What of the other incidents involving the same officers whose names keep appearing as "defendants" in these brutality suits?
At present the Monticello police department has approximately 24 police officers. Of that 24, three names -- officers Gerard Dietz, Salvatore Accomando and Carlos Pittaluga -- appear most frequently. What then are the remainder of these offers doing?
It is obvious that the black community and the village police are at odds. And the recent hiring of an African-American female officer, Kimberly Walker, is the apparent answer of the police chief to the problems existing between it and the black community. But is it? There are individuals in important positions in the community. But there is question about how committed the Monticello community as a whole is toward resolving them. If the police are to be feared, some are asking, how can they be trusted to protect and assist those whom they hate?
A strange paradox indeed. And one that bears close watching.
[Editor's note: This is the first of a series of articles in The River Reporter by William F. Browne on this subject. Author of a recently published book, Frederick Douglass and John Brown, Two Kinds of Courage -- Frederick Douglass & John Brown, Dr. Browne lives in the river valley.]
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