Black militants exploit ‘rape’ story to promote themselves

Press, 29 June 1988, Page 16

Black militants exploit ‘rape’ story to promote themselves

Simon Hoggart,

, of the “Observer,” on a case

that threatens New York’s fragile race relations

THE APPALLING story of Tawana Brawley, the black 15-year-old who claimed she had been repeatedly raped by a white policeman, took another twist last week, coming one stage nearer to destroying New York’s fragile race relations.

A close associate of the black militants who have been advising the Brawley family claimed that even they did not believe Miss Brawley’s tale, but had been pursuing the case to promote their political ambitions. His evidence seemed to confirm what most white New Yorkers have believed for months: that the story of an unspeakable attack was a lie and has been used by the militants to stir up racial hatred.

The case goes back to last November in the small town of Wappingers Falls, an hour’s drive north of New York City. Tawana Brawley, aged 15, was found curled up in a garbage bag. Someone had hacked at her hair and smeared it with dog dirt. “Nigger” and the initials of the Ku Klux Klan had been written in charcoal on her chest.

In hospital, Tawana could not bring herself to talk to the white policemen who tried to interview her. They sent in a black colleague who asked her who had done it, she wrote on a piece of paper “white cop.” After that she said barely a word except to her aunt and mother.

Her story was that two men, one wearing a holster and badge, had kidnapped her in a car.

They had taken her into the woods where they had met four other men, who had repeatedly abused and violated her over the next four days and nights. This horrible account seemed to be confirmed four days later when a local part-time policeman, Harry Crist, who fitted her description of the “white cop,” committed suicide.

Tawana’s story appalled the country. Bill Cosby offered a $U525,000 reward. Heavyweight champion Mike Tyson promised to pay her college education, and handed her his $U535,000 Rolex. The story of the ordeal became a rallying point for many black people, who saw it as a throwback to the days when whites could mistreat black women with impunity. Soon the case was taken up by the Rev. Al Sharpton, a flamboyant black priest from New York, and by two lawyers, Mr Alton Maddox and Mr Vernon Mason. Mr Maddox and Mr Mason have won a reputation as the most intransigent attorneys in America. They have developed a standard technique for all racial cases; they accuse all the authorities of bigotry and refuse to allow their client to co-oper-ate.

They did this in last year’s Howard Beach murder trial after

a white gang chased a young black to his death. They had some success, one white was convicted of murder.

This time they accused all the authorities of a racially motivated cover-up, declared that one of the district attorneys assistants had been among the attackers, and said that the Wappingers Falls police department was infiltrated by the Ku Klux Klan. They persuaded the Governor of New York, Mr Mario Cuomo, to take the case out of local hands and appoint a special prosecutor. They also refused to let Tawana talk to him or to anyone else. The girl did not seem to mind; in a rare public utterance, she said that the family approved of “everything the Rev Al Sharpton was doing.” But then big holes began to appear in her story. Neighbours said they had seen her crawling into the garbage bag. Other people reported spotting her in the area during the time she was supposed to have been kidnapped. It emerged that the policeman had killed himself after his girlfriend left him.

Medical examinations of Tawana produced no evidence of rape or sodomy — or even that she had been outdoors four days in the cold autumn. She had just

had a row with her stepfather, who had a violent record. By this time, there can scarcely have been a white person in the state who beleived the story. Yet such is the terror of racial conflict that almost nobody said so publicly. Mr Maddox and Mr Mason simply argued that Tawana could not expect a fair hearing. “Whenever a black woman complains about a white man raping her, the black woman is penalised,” Mr Maddox declared last week. Meanwhile the black community was split between those who admired the lawyers for dramatising inequities in the legal system, and those who felt they had gone too far. Mr Mason and Mr Maddox gave these moderates their most scornful epithet: “Negroes.” Two weeks ago Tawana’s mother, Mrs Glenda Brawley, was subpoenaed to give evidence to the grand jury which is trying, with difficulty, to investigate the case. She refused. Mr Mason and Mr Maddox represented her at the hearing, talked about 400 years of racial injustice and refused to offer the court — by now desperate for a way out — any reason why she should not go to jail. She was sentenced, and the lawyers whisked her off to shel-

ter in a church. While there is no law of “sanctuary" in America, the authorities were wise enogh not to pursue her there. Then last week, Mr Perry McKinnon, an assistant to Mr Sharpton, said that the advisors had fabricated much of the story “as they went along.” He accused them of pocketing money sent in by well-wishers from across America.

Last week, Mr McKinnon gave evidence, in camera, to the grand jury. He has also offered a motive, quoting Mr Sharpton as saying: "If we can win this Tawana thing, we’ll be the biggest niggers in New York.” Few people now doubt that their aim is to mobilise and control the vast black vote in New York City. They have already staked out positions against the other big ethnic groups, accusing the I.R.A. and the Mafia of “controlling the State.” The I.R.A. is not powerful in New York, but the Mafia is. Meanwhile, the forgotten person in the middle of the acrimonius scandal is Tawana Brawley. Few people now believe her story. The main question is how much of it is a fib: did she concoct it to get herself out of trouble at home, or was she violently assaulted by someone for whom she is covering up? In New York, sweating in the first heatwave of the summer, the best hope is that the case will not continue to simmer passions, but will melt away in general ridicule. This may take some time.