After reading the N&R's latest installment in the story of former police Chief David Wray, it was hard for me not to think of a Greek tragic hero like Oedipus; Wray's story seems to be full of bitter irony.
The N&R story explains to me what had previously seemed inexplicable: how a man like Wray, who was publicly devoted to helping ease Greensboro's chronic disease of race-based resentment, could get caught up in what looked like a race-motivated persecution of a black officer.
The (alleged) answer: he thought Lt. Hinson was a dirty cop, but, lacking dispositive evidence against him, couldn't fire him without igniting a race-resentment conflagration. So he doggedly kept after that evidence, and sought it in ways that eventually cost him his job and his reputation.
Wray's story seems to have the essential arc of a Greek tragedy: a good man makes a serious mistake which entangles him in his own destruction.
Take Oedipus, who was bent on discovering the killer of his father Laius. In Oedipus the King, he becomes obsessed with finding the killer and pursues clues ruthlessly, against the counsel of his advisers, until he discovers that he himself was the killer. He is ruined and disgraced.
It's a tragic irony that Chief Wray may have become a bad cop out of an obsessive desire to collar a bad cop, and acquired a reputation as a racist out of his efforts to avoid a race incident.
I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that no matter what issue you're dealing with in Greensboro, no matter how small, and no matter how fine you chop it, race resentment, both white and black, is there.
Like fate in the tragedies, if you're a public person, it can bring you down, and if you try to resist it, it will bring you down even harder.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Wray, Oedipus, Race, and Fate
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12 comments:
Very good analysis of exactly what happened to David Wray. He could have avoided the turmoil by assigning the investigation of Hinson to then Deputy Chief Scales or Assistant Chief Bellamy both of whom are African American but he failed to do so because then Assistant Chief Brady convinced him that he could not trust the African Americans to go after Hinson. Race again plays a factor.
I think we all need to know the facts in order to come to the proper conclusion. The only facts you have are the ones that the news and record are printing.I think we need to get un unbiased listing of all the facts in this investigation from both sides.The news and record is only showing one side of the story.Did they mention that LT. Hinson was raising money for charity and having the money sent to his address. Look at the rhino times articles and you will see a different story. I AM NOT SURE WHICH OF THESE STORIES ARE CORRECT. We need to know all of the confirmed facts in order to make up our minds. In my opinion this does not have to do with race at all. It smells like a dirty cop to me. Check the facts !!
Anonymous II, read my post again. I have not drawn definite conclusions about Wray, and the language I used clearly communicates that.
As to the race issue, I think you missed my point. It looks like Wray avoided firing Hinson because he didn't want to provoke a racial incident. If true, Wray was motivated by a fear of black racial resentment.
I know a few people who lived in Wray,s neighborhood growing up. They all have said the same thing about him. They have said that he always liked to have his ducks in a row. Maybe this is why he was waiting for the right evidence to come in on the Hinson case. These people have also made comments that he was not a racist.These racist comments are coming from a dirty cop who almost got caught.He had to use race as a reason to get the heat off of him and on Wray. Look at the facts. Would you want this guy protecting your neighborhood?
It would have made a difference if one of the African Americans lead the investigation because it would have taken race out of the picture and they both were experienced investigators who would not have made the same mistakes Brady did.
The entire matter only became a racial issue because Wray did not have any diversity in his close circle of confidants. Wray did have diversity in the staff and none of his minority commanders ever referrred to him or anything he ever did as racist. There was a quote in the paper over the weekend from one of the former black commanders that states Wray bent over backwards to avoid any resemblance of racism in his administration.
Hopefully one day we will be able to hear from the officers who work forthe Gboro police. It will be nice to hear what they think of Wray and Hinson. I am sure one day this will come out. Hopefully after the investigation ends we will hear the truth.
Joe, the world in which "a police chief should not have to select who handles an investigation to 'take race out of the equation'" would also be a world in which we wouldn't need police chiefs at all, because it would be a perfect world.
But until the Kingdom of Heaven arrives, police chiefs and everyone else are going to have to take account of race.
Facing the power of race to divide, David Wray tried to control the situation and painted himself into a corner. Leveraging the power of race to divide, Skip Alston manipulates situations and keeps himself in power. Denying the power of race to divide, Tom Phillips ignores situations and keeps us from turning a corner. Surely, there are others who want to do something other than control, manipulate, and ignore, right?
Joe, I don't know. I am amazed at the mindshare being given to dissecting this one historical instance of a larger ongoing problem. As a fan, I'm grateful for the opportunity to read 20 installments of anything Jerry Bledsoe writes, but what has my interest is who will step up to move us forward and not who is more marginally culpable for holding us back. If every single person in this town paid every spare moment of their time paying attention to every detail of the David Wray case, do you really in your heart of hearts have any doubt that when it was all over, we'd look up and see the same people on opposite sides of the room? I don't, so I won't.
David,
I appreciate your thoughtful post.
I have maintained all along that Wray was not racist but he did made some fundamental mistakes which caused the City Manager/Council/Staff to lose faith and justifiably question things. I thought the N&R article was well balanced overall to my surprise.
What I still find disturbing is the continued Bledsoe articles which have gone about 10 articles too long for my taste and for the good of the Community. Obvioulsy we have a right to know what happened but at what cost and to who's reputation. I realize all the facts are not known but I think the Rhino bias has really been exposed on this one to their own detriment. What detrimnet you ask. I recently spoke to two small business owners where I shop and picked up the Rhino. Both had removed it from their facility and stated they were pulling future ads from the weekly. Why? Complaints from customers that it was full of hate speech. If they ever lose real estate ads, they will have the relevance of the Charlotte Rhino which is minimal at best.....I used to live in Charlotte and trust me, no one in government cares about it down there. It is just one of the many weekly's toiling in anonymity.
Joe - We are in the umpteenth chapter of Jerry's historical look at the Wray case. Along the way, we've made day trips to November 3, 1979 and had a very smelly sleepover in the News & Record's dirty laundry room. Every week, people are pouring over this historical detail. You are even been excerpting it. As usual, there is all this amazing interest and energy around placing blame and confirming preconceived notions about race in Greensboro. You see identity group politics. I see other things. The river rolls on. When it comes to discussing the TRC report, or anything that requires people to let go of their judgments and take a leap of faith together, the interest stops dead cold. All of the sudden, it's a "waste of time," "part of the past," "a crock," -- too "backwards looking." Clearly, it's not the direction that's the problem. It's the focus. People are loving the look backwards as long as what they see is familiar. I don't know who is right or wrong in the Wray case. I don't even understand the question. I would just like to see people on both sides of the divide divert even a fraction of the energy they currently devote to meticulously footnoting their own particular shade of racial bitterness. This feels like a late-career Tyson fight to me -- all this competitive hype, but when it's all over there is no clear winner and it all feels like a setup for the rematch which you know is coming and you'll have to pay for it.
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