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| San Francisco Chronicle - San Francisco, California |
THE ILLS OF A WISCONSIN COPReviewed By: Kathy Kahn Former San Jose security guard, Sylvester Harris, had a rough time a black cop in Racine, Wis. He had expected as much, as he recalls in "A reason For Being," when the mayor first asked him to join the police department in 1967. He had been beaten up by cops as a kid growing up on the wrong side of the tracks in Racine. by 1967, he was an angry young protester, dodging police batons in street demonstrations. Harris turned down the mayor's job offer at first, he writes, skeptical that he could improve police behavior by working from the inside. at the time, police jobs were opening up to young men like Harris, yet racial tension was breaking out into open violence, and a backlash had started. There were still only a few black officers, he said, and the whites distrusted and resented them. One of Harris' assignments, to investigate complaints of police brutality against black citizens, didn't help him win friends among his new white colleagues. His account of 10 years on the force is a story of doubled standards, one tale after another of how differently white and black citizens were treated by the police, and how white and black cops ere treated by their department. It's also the one man story of how the civil rights movement reached a dead end. after a decade of fighting the system, Harris fled the cold streets of Racine for a private job in warmer California. on his way out of town, Harris won an extraordinary legal victory over the local law-enforcement establishment and was awarded more than $250,000 in damages. It started on a winter evening in 1974, when Harris stopped a car for a traffic infraction, and the driver pulled a gun on him. The driver turned out to be a paroled robber who went to the district attorney, and said that Harris had come to his house two days after the arrest and beaten him. Harris remained free while the district attorney ensured the accusations. From the start, Harris says the case was unfairly tried in the press. Even the parolee's recantation of the story at a meeting in the mayors office didn't stop the presiding judge from repeatedly denouncing Harris in public, the author contends. After two years on the defensive, Harris counterattacked with a civil rights suit in federal court. His victory, upheld on appeal in 1979, is a minor legal landmark, and this alone, makes his book historically noteworthy. The real story here, is not the legal victory, but the personal toll is took on the cop who won it. Harris' narration in angry, emotional and rough-edged: charges of racism fly thick and fast at many of the people he encounters. For the reader who might wonder if the very large chip on Harris' shoulder contributed to his problems, here's the federal court's summary of the case: "The copious evidence of racial motivation... was overwhelming... a public and private campaign of vilification." Harris writes movingly on the emotional strain, sleepless nights and physical illness brought on by his daily battles. and he tells of the moment when he stood up in federal court, nearly in tears, to explain himself and all the contradictions of his life, inside and outside the systems: "How could I tell, this all-white jury that the salvation of the American black man is encompassed in the hands of the white man? It is not because I want to believe that the white global collective holds within them, our destiny, but it is truly what the American black man believes." ...Harris' story reminds white readers that
racism hurts the heart and sole, not just the pocketbook. Review of "A Reason for Being: The
Syl Harris Story" |
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