Are Louisville police staging a coup?

World Combined Sources

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

And so it was that despite public pleas against it, the Louisville police chose to march again on March 17 to protest Mayor Dave Armstrong firing Police Chief Eugene Sharrard. After the protest, Rick McCubbin, Lodge #6 president, Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), said he would no longer speak with reporters from The Louisville Courier-Journal, citing the paper's stories on the FOP's march to City Hall, which put the crowd at 2,000.

McCubbin claimed between 4,000 and 5,000 people participated. The march was organized by the FOP to denounce Armstrong and seek Sherrard's reinstatement.

Reportedly after Mayor Armstrong fired Sherrard a call went out over the police radio to go down to City Hall. Several commanders quit in support of Sherrard.

This led the Courier-Journal to editorialize on the police actions calling it a "Police Coup."

Armstrong fired Sherrard after the chief approved awards of valor for Officers Paul Kinkade and Chris Horn. The two officers, both white, fatally shot 22 times, an unarmed Black man, Desmond Rudolph, 18, last May, who they said was attempting to flee in a stolen Chevrolet Blazer.

Rudolph's death outraged African Americans and whites in the city. The Citizens Against Police Abuse (CAPA), a coalition of some 30 religious and community organizations, protested outside of the Galt House where the banquet was being held.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson sent a team of civil rights activists into Louisville, last week, hoping to find "common ground" to bring about healing to this community, which police brutality is dividing.

Rev. James Trent Meeks, national vice president Rainbow Coalition, told McCubbin March 4 that the issue was not a "Black-white issue, but a wrong-right issue!" He also advised the FOP not to march on St. Patrick's Day because it would further "polarize the community."

This is not the first time, CAPA has had to respond to the actions of the Louisville Police Department. In fact, it was founded after police brutally beat Adrian Reynolds with a flashlight and fists and then pepper-sprayed him January 1, 1998.

Police took him to the hospital before he was jailed. He suffered a concussion, a broken nose and other head injuries. Six days later, Reynolds died after a struggle with jail guards. After a huge outcry, one guard was indicted for murder.

But the four police officers were cleared and reinstated with back pay. One more officer's trial was moved to Lexington and is scheduled in October.

And McCubbin himself is accused in a wrongful-death suit filed by the Mexican consul in the killing of an unarmed Mexican worker, Fidencio Campos-Cruz on June 13, 1998.

Police say McCubbin killed Campos-Cruz, 30, after Campos-Cruz allegedly attacked McCubbin with a knife at a Louisville apartment. They charged Campos-Cruz posthumously with attempted murder of a police officer.

But the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court said that when McCubbin shot him, "Campos-Cruz was unarmed. He was sitting on a bed ... He posed no threat to Officer McCubbin."

McCubbin made Campos-Cruz stand up so he could pat him down because he saw a bulge in his pants pocket. It turned out to be a can of beer, McCubbin said.

Campos-Cruz sat down again before he could finish patting him down, and when he tried to make him stand, the alleged attack occurred. McCubbin said he fired twice, hitting Campos-Cruz in the chest and head.

Grace Lewis, board member, Kentucky Alliance against Racist and Political Repression, contributed to this article.