At Greensboro City Council meetings, it is common to hear people talk about systemic racism, particularly in the Police Department.
Councilmember Yvonne Johnson talks regularly about how the City Council has to change the way it has done things in the past to end “systematic racism.”
A charge of systemic racism seems to ignore the history of the Greensboro Police Department for the past 33 years.
The first black Greensboro police chief was Sylvester Daughtry, who was appointed police chief in 1987.
Daughtry served as chief until 1998. That gave him 11 years to promote, and groom for future promotion, officers who had his same philosophy of policing.
Daughtry was followed by Greensboro second black police chief, Robert White, who had retired from the Washington, D.C., police department as an assistant chief. White served from 1998 to 2003.
Police Chief David Wray took over in 2003 and was accused of being a racist and bringing racist policies to the department. However, it seems worth noting that Wray had been promoted by both Daughtry and White.
In 2006, Wray was forced to resign by City Manager Mitch Johnson, who was later fired by the Greensboro City Council largely for his actions involving Wray and the Police Department.
Greensboro’s third black police chief was Tim Bellamy, who served from 2006 to 2010. Bellamy was mainly kept busy cleaning up the mess that was created by the battle between Wray and Mitch Johnson.
While Bellamy was police chief, in 2007 Yvonne Johnson was elected as Greensboro’s first black mayor. Yvonne Johnson had been an at-large city councilmember since 1995 and before being elected mayor was the city’s first black mayor pro tem. After losing her bid for reelection as mayor in 2009, Johnson won an at-large seat on the City Council in 2011 and became mayor pro tem again.
In 2010, when Bellamy retired, Rashad Young, who was Greensboro’s first black city manager, hired Ken Miller, who is white, as police chief.
Miller reached retirement age in 2014 and, in an attempt to keep him from retiring, Greensboro’s second black city manager, Denise Roth, gave Miller a $27,000 raise. Miller, however, retired in 2014.
In 2015, Police Chief Wayne Scott was appointed by City Manager Jim Westmoreland. Both are white.
Scott retired in January of this year and City Manager David Parrish promoted the current police chief, Brian James, to that position. James is Greensboro’s fourth black police chief since 1987.
I am a citizen of greensboro and have been all my life and I would like to know why the new chief of police did nothing to stop the violence that took place in down town greensboro and were was the sheriff at why dose our city look like a third world city? And who went to jail nobody …. Thanks for nothing what a shame so much for protecting our town and what about the oath you took both of you said you would protect the city and the citizens what a joke.
The Sheriff and the Greensboro police Chief are both black. Got it?
It is good that GPD has hired several black police chiefs, but that only speaks to their hiring practices; it says nothing of the training officers receive, the attitudes they grew up with, or how they treat people of color in the community. Those are the matters at issue here.
Simple leadership. As Black men in the position of leadership they had every opportunity to change the attitudes of the entire force. Plus they were clearly highly respected by those is political power and should have been able to influence everything from the bottom up and top down. So the question is “ if the systemic racism was/is so prevalent then why did they not change it? “
What does having black police chiefs have to do with the systematic racism within the inner ranks and/ or the racist actions carried out by the force?
Also important to note that GPD retirement is 30 years, so every officer in the department has come since the start of your 33 year timeline
I want to know why the Mayor did nothing…She has Never given our local police any support . Unbelievable she was given a six term. Democrats are all like Portland and Chicago.. Very Sick…
But Yvonne Johnson is right to bemoan the systemic institutionalized racism inherent in America. Both my sons were disadvantaged in their applications to universities because of the color of their skin. They are white.
If I were in the construction industry I would be discriminated against as a white man because I am not a “minority” nor a woman. MWBE preferences demand one or the other. Is this not institutionalised racism? Is this not institutionalised sexism?
I am sick of being discriminated against by my own governments – including the Greensboro City Council – which includes not a single white man.
This is my humble personal opinion: the ones who must change their attitude are the Greensboro residents. I’ve witness in different occasions when an individual is pull over by a police officer for speeding or something else, they are belligerents and disrespectful instead of recognizing their mistakes and recognize that what they were doing was not right. They begin looking for excuses and begin acting like uncivilized people, no respect for law enforcement or someone else. “Your attitude changes the Outcome of your situation”.
Well you all know what to do next elections right????
Choose between socialists and communists?
The choice is Adolph or Joseph.