After the lies and false accusations presented by NAACP local President Mitch Gaddis against our local and state police, I have a few questions and comments.

Is there anyone in the black community that has the guts to denounce Mr. Gaddis for his obviously incorrect and inflammatory statements?

I doubt it.

Will Mr. Gaddis have the honesty and integrity to apologize to our community for labeling our police as “storm-troopers?”

Again, I doubt it.

How on earth can a once respected group such as the NAACP expect to be taken seriously when it elects someone such as Gaddis to be its president?

Dr. Benjamin Hooks told a 1990 NAACP convention: “I’m calling for a moratorium on excuses. I challenge black America today – all of us – to set aside our alibis.”
Mr. Gaddis, you are no Benjamin Hooks!

Every year around Homecoming, the same thing happens in DeKalb. Black students, wanting to do their own thing, schedule a social event at a location on or near campus.

An outside vendor oversells tickets to the event. Then, a large group of black students and visitors come from Chicago and other places to attend the event, only to find that they can’t get in due to too many people.

The crowd often gets out of hand, spilling into the streets, blocking foot and vehicle traffic. Fights break out and the whole situation quickly turns into chaos. Someone eventually calls the police. But, by then, it’s too late.

A few days later, some disgruntled person writes to the Northern Star and complains about how badly black people are treated in DeKalb.

Isn’t it about time that our black students realize that the people selling the tickets don’t give a damn about you after they have gotten your money? This scenario has played itself out many times over the years. Black events/dances have been shut down so many times that they must be running out of places to hold them.

Much of the problem lies in the fact that these events are attended by people who have no stake in our town. They come to party with a clear disregard for our community and its people. Some of them come armed, which presents a whole different set of problems for our police and our citizens.

Mr. Gaddis said that our police have “no regard for the lives of black people.” I seem to recall a certain Mr. Kanye West saying the same thing about President Bush. Sometimes it is better to be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.

On to another matter. I agree with DeKalb Police Chief Feithen when he suggests that “if students want a safe environment, they must help create that environment themselves.”

There has been talk of recent robberies and attacks in DeKalb. This is not new to our area. But, let’s look at the problem from strictly a numbers point-of-view.

While it’s true that crimes are committed by all races, it is also true that the vast majority of violent crime against our citizens is committed by young black males. This has been the case on and near the NIU campus for many years.

During the late 1980s, there were so many attacks on whites by blacks, that a name was given to those acts. The name was “polar bearing.” When I was a police officer at NIU, I had numerous occasions to talk to people that had been arrested.

I often asked why so many young guys were committing crimes in our area and the answer was most often the same. I was told that whites, especially students, were an easy target.

I was even told by one person that he wished that white people would fight back more. I guess you have to have a certain mentality and mindset to express that thought.

NIU/DeKalb is but a reflection of what’s going on in our country as a whole. In Chicago, 34 black children were killed last year. Yet, we see the same tired attempts by the black community to affect this tragedy.

Community leaders, citizens and police march down the street, shouting slogans, and promising to “take back the streets.” But the violence continues and the divisions remain. We send our children to school now wearing bullet resistant backpacks.

What a shame! So many are being killed in Philadelphia, that nearly 10,000 people recently volunteered to help “police” the streets.

Blacks and whites have to come together and recognize who the real enemy is. We have produced a subculture of predators who have no regard for the rule of law or human life.

Recently, Louis Farrakhan spoke to a crowd celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Million Man March. He said the gangs were making his job much harder and he was having a very difficult time defending them.

I believe, as many do, that Mr. Farrakhan is a racist in his own right. But even he recognizes what the violence and crime is doing to our cities and country.

Why do I cite these things? Here’s why. We are failing as a people because everything that happens is immediately seen as a confrontation of color. We fight each other, taking sides on issues and supporting people undeserving of such support.

Years ago, I was at the Holmes Student Center on duty when the O.J. Simpson verdict was read on television. The black students jumped for joy and were very happy in the outcome. The white students hung their heads and stared at the floor.

Later, I asked some of the black students if they really thought O.J. was innocent. Several said no, but they were not about to break the solidarity with their black brothers and sisters. One black female activist even said at the time that the problem was that O.J. married a white woman.

Many whites are no better! An overzealous prosecutor in the Jena 6 incident, pursuing attempted murder charges against the attackers, was just as wrong as the goofball state’s attorney in the Duke lacrosse case going after the three players for rape, even knowing that there was no evidence of rape.

We must choose our battles carefully and honestly. We must not support someone or some group solely because of their skin color or ethnic background. If they are wrong, then say they are wrong.

Without efforts by good people of all colors, bad people will continue to rule the day, and we will all suffer the consequences.

At NIU, we used to hear the slogan, “Unity in Diversity.” Well, it’s easy to see the diversity, but damn hard to see the unity. There are those who would have us stay apart because if we ever came together, they’d be out of a job.

Finally, Mr. Gaddis, most citizens of our community had no idea who you are. They, like I, first met you when you were pictured on the front page of the Northern Star on Oct. 23. You had the opportunity to seek out the truth before you made your comments. You should ask Mr. Green to check his sources about the alleged attack on his uncle.

Or, is it that the truth doesn’t matter? If any dislike has come to you because of this incident, Mr. Gaddis, it is because many of us resent someone who plays to his audience knowing that the facts presented are false.

Albert “Swede” Ekstrom
Retired NIU police officer and NIU Alumnus ‘73

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