Police tapes, Pence, immigration raid rumor: What we learned from Pete Buttigieg's book
Police tapes
Buttigieg calls reappointing Daryl Boykins as police chief a few weeks after taking office in 2012 his “first serious mistake as mayor.”
When he demoted Boykins to captain in March 2012, he knew only that Boykins, believing that some other officers wanted his job, had allegedly confronted them with tape recordings that could embarrass them if disclosed, Buttigieg writes. Shortly after the demotion, media outlets began reporting on “rumors” that the tapes contained evidence of officers using racist language to describe Boykins.
A civilian police employee who listened to the tapes said the officers used racist language and discussed their own criminal activities.
Buttigieg writes that federal prosecutors sent him a “thinly veiled” message that they would charge Boykins if he didn’t step down, so he had to decide which scenario was more likely to “tear the community apart — a well-liked African American police chief potentially being indicted over compliance with a very technical federal law, or me removing him for allowing it to reach this point?”
But something had to change.
“Even leaving aside that I believed removing him was the best way to avoid him facing potential legal action, I had lost confidence in the leadership of a chief who had not come to me the moment he realized he was the target of an FBI investigation.”
In April 2012, Buttigieg said publicly he had “resolved the situation” to his satisfaction and a month later asked the U.S. Department of Justice to take over the case.
The police tapes controversy turned into a protracted legal battle, and Buttigieg acknowledges in the book that the issue “affected my relationship with the African-American community in particular for years” and that he saw important lessons about “the deeply fraught relationship between law enforcement and communities of color.”
The legal fight still lingers today.
Pence and social issues
Buttigieg initially liked Republican Gov. Mike Pence, but that changed when Pence championed and signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a bill passed by the GOP-controlled Indiana General Assembly that would have let business owners cite their religious beliefs in denying service to gay couples.
Immigration raid?
One day early in 2017, shortly after Trump took office, the mayor’s phone started to “blow up” with texts asking if there was any truth to rumors of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on the west side, where many Latinos live and operate businesses.
Buttigieg writes that he “asked around” whether there was any truth to the rumor, and determined there was not. But before he knew that for sure, several small businesses on the west side had closed for the day, parents were “grabbing” their children from school and families were taking refuge at St. Adalbert’s Church.
One evening soon after, he attended a “Know Your Rights” event at Harrison Primary Center, where a legal nonprofit had set up a projector with a slideshow. A group of mostly white students from Adams High School had volunteered to watch children of the Latino parents who had come.
“When I was in high school (National Honor Society), our volunteer projects had to do with things like litter cleanup,” he writes. “Now, in post-2016 America, there were whole new categories of things you can volunteer to do — such as consoling and entertaining six-year-olds while their terrified immigrant parents gather in a school gym to get legal advice on how to keep their families from being torn apart by federal agents.”
Bernie calls
When he was running for Democratic National Committee chair in early 2017, Buttigieg received a call from Bernie Sanders suggesting he drop out and make room for candidate Keith Ellison.
Ellison and former Obama Labor Secretary Tony Perez were the front-runners when Buttigieg entered the race late. Ellison, a Minnesota congressman, had the support of the party’s growing left wing, many of them young people, while Perez was seen as representing the party establishment. Buttigieg thought he might be able to position himself as an alternative to the party divide – a fresh start who could lead the party into a new future.
https://www.southbendtribune.com/news/local/police-tapes-pence-immigration-raid-rumor-what-we-learned-from/article_3d871e0c-1dfe-5339-8f18-eea5a90a4560.html