Malice Green Case - 1992/1993 (Detroit, Hamtramck: rent, felony, houses)

[100LL]

All,

I want to start this off by saying that I don't want this turning into a huge racial debate. I'm 21 years old (I was 5 when all this was going on), and I just finished reading Larry Nevers' book "Good Cops Bad Verdict" which is his account of everything that happened.

www.larrynevers.com
www.goodcopsbadverdict.com

I wanted to see what you all remembered, from newspaper articles to TV interviews, etc. I want to know what the general mood and feeling was in Detroit around this time. I'm trying to get a view of the city that I never really knew when I was a kid.

Thanks in advance for your help!

-LL

[johnishere]

I like to think that I am very unbiased and a neutral observer on most things. With that said, I was not on the jury for this case and therefore I can't say what exactly happened. I wasn't there.

The mood in Detroit at that time was not 'highly' volatile; I wouldn't say it was another South Central L.A. waiting to explode. But of course you will always have a certain group of folks who will cry foul under those circumstances no matter what the situation was. Malice was black, cops were white. That's enough for some folk to cry foul. Malice was a citizen, and they were cops. That's enough for other folk to cry foul. Are there bad or racist cops still out there? Sure. Are there good, non-racist cops out there now? I believe more of them are good than bad.

I am not taking sides because, again, I wasn't there. But being a cop is a very tough job. Many folks EXPECT that cops are supposed to keep everybody safe, prevent everybody's house from being broken into, catch car thieves BEFORE cars are stolen, and keep drugs off the streets, BUT..... they expect cops to do all of that without so much as even looking sideways at anybody. "Don't pull me over", "don't ask me any questions", "don't be suspicious just because I'm standing in front of this vacant house"..... "but keep everybody safe".

When a cop pulls someone over, or takes someone who's been drinking in their own house to jail, they're being harassing.... Yet, if they 'don't' take someone to jail whose been drinking at their own house, they are blamed when that same woman then drives and kills 4 teens.

As in the Malice Green situation, these cops are dealing with tough people and tough situations. These are not "hello, good afternoon kind sir" kind of people.... these are folk who will shoot you dead [L.A. March '09]. And the cops have no way of knowing which is which. Was Malice already high? If I remember correctly he was. Was he not complying with what the officers said to open his hands or something like that? If I remember correctly has wasn't. Might he have died anyway if he had so much as tried to run across the street to catch a butterfly? He might have 'cause, if I remember correctly, he was pretty high at the time. Did the officers use more force than they could have chose to use in that situation? They might have. It's a VERY thin line. And I wasn't on the jury to know if they crossed it.
.

[and the]

It was prosecuted based on race, decided based on race and portrayed from a racial perspective in the media. Kym Worthy's career was made based on this case. The medical examiner was inept, and that was one of his more endearing qualities. A T-Shirt of the time said it all: "The Ascension Of Saint Malice". The only good thing that came of it was the dismantleing of Detroit's Recorder's Court system.

Make no mistake about it: A community gets the kind of police department it deserves. Detroit has a winner.

[Cliffie]

I remember someone I know going to Green's funeral and noticing she was the only white person there.

I remember my dad, who hated and feared Black people all his life, indignantly saying how disgusted he was that a bunch of cops ganged up on and killed a skinny little guy like that.

I remember never hearing a single thing to support what the police did to Green.

[Blue Grass Fever]

Originally Posted by 100LL

All,

I want to start this off by saying that I don't want this turning into a huge racial debate. I'm 21 years old (I was 5 when all this was going on), and I just finished reading Larry Nevers' book "Good Cops Bad Verdict" which is his account of everything that happened.

Nevers and Budzyn Website
Good Cops, Bad Verdict - Home

I wanted to see what you all remembered, from newspaper articles to TV interviews, etc. I want to know what the general mood and feeling was in Detroit around this time. I'm trying to get a view of the city that I never really knew when I was a kid.

Thanks in advance for your help!

-LL

I remember coming back from a buddy's house in Hamtramck going south on I-75 only to run into traffic because of a KISS concert being held at Tiger Stadium that evening. As i got off the freeway, i was driving my way around the traffic, i noticed the Malice Green mural which had been vandalized with white paint splattered all over it. Turns out, some racist(s) wanted to make an absurd point by making sure it was white paint. Nobody was throwing things at my truck nor cursing me out as i drove by, so i'd say the mood was somewhat calm, given the situation.

[and the]

Turns out, some racist(s) wanted to make an absurd point by making sure it was white paint. Nobody was throwing things at my truck nor cursing me out as i drove by, so i'd say the mood was somewhat calm, given the situation.

How do you know they were racists? They didn't throw anything or curse at you as you drove by because people who slow down in that neighborhood are there to buy something or rent someone by the hour or by the act. They probably thought you were a potential customer.

Just some trivia: Did you know that during the days of Recorders court, if you were arrested for a felony in Wayne County and went to trial, the people on your jury would be picked ONLY from Detroit residents and the judges elected ONLY be Detroit voters?

[100LL]

Originally Posted by and the

Just some trivia: Did you know that during the days of Recorders court, if you were arrested for a felony in Wayne County and went to trial, the people on your jury would be picked ONLY from Detroit residents and the judges elected ONLY be Detroit voters?

Yeah I did....I think this case was a huge push forward for the Recorder's Court to disband and let there be fair representation in Wayne County.

A little too late for these officers, IMO

[johnishere]

Originally Posted by and the

How do you know they were racists?

Do you think that the people who threw white paint on the Malice Green mural were not racists?

[100LL]

Not anymore racist then the Mayor at the time

[and the]

Do you think that the people who threw white paint on the Malice Green mural were not racists?

I think there is not enough evidence either way to say if they believed that one race was superior to another. Were they arrested? Did they confess that they were motivated by racism? Or were they just sick of the double standard? Maybe they knew about the black cops in River Rouge who never made the news for a similar incident in which the guy who died had less cocaine in his system than Malice. The one where the Wayne County Medical Examiner said cause of death was due to cocaine.

Remember when John O'Hair was on TV mispronouncing Green's name as "muh-LEECE"???

The people of Detroit get exactly the kind of police department they deserve.

Was the guy who gave the jury a tape of Spike Lee's "Malcolm Ex" to watch before deliberating a racist?

If your neighborhood was over run with crack houses and whores and you couldn't afford to escape to the suburbs, who would you rather have respond when you called for help? A Larry Nevers, or a Stanley Knox?

Was the numbskull chief of police who told the national media "This isn't Simi Valley, we WILL convict here" a racist when he made that comment before the cops were even charged with a crime?