From 1980: Deadly force, deadlier executions | Chuck Stone

This column originally appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News on Oct. 10, 1980. On Monday, Chuck Stone was honored with a special citation from the Pulitzer Prize Board.

The tan roundness of Mrs. Felicita Torres’ face could have been sculpted from the good earth of Puerto Rico.

Her long, shining black hair parted in the middle reminded me of my mother, who braided her hair the same way. Mothers always try to look stern, but forget their soul’s betrayal by gentle eyes that struggle to blink back tears when sorrow clutches the soul.

I took a personal liberty and kissed Mrs. Torres on the cheek. Her son, Efrain " Frankie" Flecha, nodded, then smiled as the police Roundhouse swallowed him up.

Flecha was the 10th suspect wanted by police to surrender to me since October 1977.

It would be tempting to exalt my worth. Delusions can be fathered by fate and egos nurtured by accidents.

THE 10 SURRENDERS weren’t votes of confidence in Chuck Stone as an understanding friend, but 10 black and Hispanic declarations of fear of police as a terrorizing Gestapo.

No single issue racially polarizes Philadelphia today more than Frank Rizzo’s larger-than-life legacy — a seemingly uncontrollable police abuse of blacks and Hispanics.

One tragic spinoff is the division of police blue into ethnic black and white.

The predominantly white Fraternal Order of Police opposed the U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit against the city.

The predominantly black Guardian Civic League supported it.

The FOP opposes the new deadly force regulation.

The Guardians support it.

THE REASON DEADLY FORCE divides black and white policemen is because it has been used indiscriminately in the past against minorities.

Blacks are executed on the street by pistol-whippings, killings while handcuffed and accidentally discharged guns.

The reason deadly force divides black and white policemen is because it has been used indiscriminately in the past against minorities.

True, blacks commit the vast majority of Philadelphia’s crimes. But blacks are also 83 percent of the victims, a fact always ignored.

At last week’s City Council meeting, its notorious thug in a three-piece suit, Francis Rafferty, foamed at the mouth against the deadly force regulation.

Managing to speak three coherent sentences without dissolving into catatonia, the legislative successor to Frank " Vote White" Rizzo then belligerently tore up a copy of the deadly force order.

That act of violent frustration must have been an inspiring civics lesson to schoolchildren, who now know the Ku Klux Klan is alive and well and living in the Rafferty house of predilections.

Rafferty offers no apologies for his racism.

THE EXTENT TO WHICH he becomes an advocate for policemen who would turn the clock back to the era of deadly force street executions endangers the racial tranquility of this city.

Blacks and Hispanics have no problem with deadly force if it is intelligently applied.

It’s not. With policemen like John Ziegler and Robert Murphy roaming the streets, unregulated deadly force is a time bomb.

But minorities would ecstatically back policemen if they uncompromisingly — equitably — enforced the law.

Begin with Richard Allen homes or other places where narcotics are freely sold under the cooperative eyes of bribed policemen.

(Or can the custodians of law and order offer a more logical explanation of why dope flows so freely in the black and Hispanic communities?)

THE RESIDENTS OF Richard Allen Homes would be profoundly grateful if the police applied deadly force to the dope pushers.

They also want strong law enforcement to preserve our civility.

I go further. I advocate mandatory jail sentences for carrying guns and the death penalty for: 1) first-degree murder of anybody; 2) the killing of a policeman; 3) three-time-convicted rapists; and 4) three-time-convicted dope pushers.

In the meantime, we have an awesome educational job facing us. We need to convince the police that we are really on their side — as long as they are on ours.

We need to convince the police that we are really on their side — as long as they are on ours.

“Years ago, when a policeman walked his beat or rode his patrol car, he was respected,” wrote a person signing herself as a member of the Policemen’s Wives Association in an " Open Letter to Mayor Green." " Not today! Today, they get cursed at, spit at, accused and shot at. Why?"

A black woman, Peggy Laws, who also wrote a letter, may have unintentionally answered the policeman’s wife’s question.

" THIS STORY DID NOT begin and end on Friday, Sept. 9.

" For the police, it began when police brutality was allowed to reign. It began when psychological misfits and sadists were kept on the force simply because of patronage and color. Police were aware of John Ziegler’s sadistic behavior before the incident in North Philadelphia.

“His erratic behavior and suspension tempered the behavior of good police officers such as (Garrett) Farrell and (William) Mock.

“In their situation, extreme passiveness was used. In police brutality cases, extreme force was used. Both are wrong. Both are detrimental. A police officer should be allowed to draw his gun and fire it in the line of duty, when necessary.”

What Mrs. Laws is saying, and the black and Hispanic communities concur, is that they will eagerly support equitable enforcement of the law and a fair-minded deadly force policy.

As the Inquirer pointed out in a front-page story yesterday, Philadelphia’s deadly force regulation is moderate by comparison with other major cities.

Yet, a fulminating Rafferty feeds its critics’ distemper with his poor man’s imitation of Jimmy Cagney.

FOP PRESIDENT Thomas Garvey embosses Rafferty’s charade by mystically tying the new deadly force rule to the recent tragic shooting of policemen.

He can’t produce a shred of evidence to substantiate his shoot-from-the-lip irresponsibility.

Hopefully, in City Council hearings beginning today, the Green administration and other people of good will can convince a confused Philadelphia that it is marching to the same national beat as enlightened believers in fair law enforcement.