Comments on: Social Justice Shorts

By: Randy Paul

Randy Paul — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 21:41:53 +0000

BTW, Lester Maddox actually turned out to be a pretty decent governor, probably because he was a businessman

I’m sure you have an autgraphed axe handle from him.

By: Janet

Janet — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:40:39 +0000

Thanks Celeste for starting the dialogue at least. You have to question why in the hell would Parks and Perry both blacks want to name a new building after a racist who was the worst Chief towards minorities. Back in those days people didn’t speak out like they do today because you would get beat up under Chief Parker. Fact is he disliked Mexican and Blacks. LAPD was mostly white and that says a lot. Its a new LAPD and more miniorities then in its history. You don’t recognize a person by naming a building after him for being a racist. The people who named a building after KKK leader shows their ignornance

By: Woody

Woody — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:28:07 +0000

Yes, Randy, Gov. Wallace was a Democrat and acted like one. However, after he was shot making him an invalid and he was no longer in the political realm, he apologized, and I believe that it was real and for no purpose other than to confess his wrong decisions and perhaps make it up to his Maker. (I never thought that I would ever defend Wallace.)

BTW, Lester Maddox actually turned out to be a pretty decent governor, probably because he was a businessman. He also integrated the Georgia State Troopers and was responsible for much reform in prisons and mental health facilities. Sometimes people change or perceptions of them change.

I actually got to speak to both of them.

Oh, funny story short…our maid took my little sister, who was about six or seven at the time, and her slightly younger little boy, Michael, to a Veterans Day parade. Wallace was riding in a convertible and his car temporarily stopped for him to shake hands with some people and give out autographs. My little sister said, “I have to tell the governor something,” and then took Michael by the hand and went up to Wallace. Wallace looked at the two of them, probably wondered who was behind it, and gave her an autograph. Our maid said that she was scared and hid in the crowd when this was happening. I don’t know what my sister had to say to the governor, but we still have his autograph and a lot of laughs from this.

By: Randy Paul

Randy Paul — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 02:48:02 +0000

After seeing the evolution in society, Gov. Wallace of Alabama apologized for his 1960â€™s stances against integration.

Surely you know that Wallace was the rankest of opportunists. After losing the 1958 gubernatorial election (in which he had the endorsement of the NAACP), Wallace decided, according to Seymore Trammell, his campaign finance director, that he would not be “out-niggered again” when he ran again. The 1958 Wallace was in the Jim Folsom camp; the 1962 George Wallace was in the Orval Faubus/Lester Maddox camp.

By: Irv Mudderman

Irv Mudderman — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 02:45:43 +0000

Celeste, Parker was a guest on the television program What’s My Line? back on August 21, 1955. Doesn’t that count for anything?

By: Woody

Woody — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 01:47:05 +0000

I thought Bull Connor was bad….

By: What a Surprise

What a Surprise — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:31:40 +0000

What a surprise Don Quixote still angry about events which happended back in 1960. I wonder if DQ’s abuelita ever met Chief Parker.

I wonder who DQ is going to call whan a cholo is out shooting his cuete in the barrio?
We know DQ would not be caught dead calling the racist, xenophobes from the LAPD.

By: don quixote

don quixote — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 22:36:14 +0000

No Woody, the list would be very long indeed. Chief Parker and his Nazi Storm Trooper LAPD were brutal and racist to the core. Parker, that old alcoholic racist went to his grave as a facist who still believed in what he said, (Blacks), “we’re on top, they’re on the bottom”, (Mexican Americans), “those Mexicans are wild Indians from the hills of Mexico, they will always pull a knife”, (On African Americans during the Watts rebellion “Negro’s during a full moon run around like monkeys”, make a suspect talk quickly especially if they were black or Mexican, and if that meant a blackjack to the head all the better.
Good riddance to that old racist alcoholic, the quicker he’s forgotten the better off we’ll all be.

By: Woody

Woody — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 19:26:24 +0000

Evan, I lived in the deep South at the time. How could I tell the difference between Parker’s and prevailing views?

However, Parker seemed to state plainly what he saw without the politically correct crowd running him off. He had enough approval to remain Chief for 16 years. It would be helpful to see a list of everyone who attacked his “racism” at that time. I bet that it’s a short one.

Celeste, you lived in L.A. when Parker was Chief. Did you or any of your family feel about him then the way that you feel about him now?

By: Evan

Evan — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:23:15 +0000

No Woody, they were not the “prevailing views” of his time. Plenty of people were not racist like Parker was.