One promotion – two discrimination lawsuits.
Last September 30, St. Louis Police Commissioner Sam Dotson promoted Major Ronnie L. Robinson to a new lieutenant colonel position created within the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department to lead what was to be called the Bureau of Community Outreach and Organization Development.
Robinson, a black man, was promoted over Major Michael Caruso, a white man, and Major Rochelle Jones – many of her colleagues call her “Rocky” – who is a black woman.
Caruso filed suit against Dotson and the City of St. Louis on August 17, alleging racial discrimination. He argued that he has more education and experience than Robinson, and outscored him on a competency exam, yet Robinson was promoted over him on the basis of race.
Jones literally followed suit on August 23, alleging gender discrimination. She argued that she has more education and experience than Robinson, and outscored him on a competency exam, yet Robinson was promoted over her based on the basis of gender.
Both are represented by the law firm of Chet Pleban. One promotion – two discrimination lawsuits – one law firm.
It is a fact that Robinson was promoted over both Caruso and Jones, although both have more experience and education, and both outscored him on a competency exam. Caruso claims that only race can explain Robinson’s promotion. Jones claims that only gender can explain it. Pleban’s firm presumably will claim both, though at different times and in different trials, if these pleadings get that far.
At a press conference on Tuesday, August 23, Jones told media that Dotson told her confidentially that the promotion would go to either her or Robinson. (Dotson is not commenting on the specifics of the case to media while the litigation is pending.) It’s entirely plausible that Dotson would have been determined to promote a black commander to lead the newly created Bureau of Community Outreach and Organization Development. Dotson’s boss, Mayor Francis G. Slay, told the St. Louis Regional Chamber and public that he intends for Ferguson to be a defining moment for his waning tenure, and the new bureau is a post-Ferguson artifact intended to smooth tensions between police and the community – the black community. The symbolism (and, arguably, the efficacy) of this bureau would be a lot stronger with a newly minted black lieutenant colonel running the show.
But if Dotson – regardless of what he claims in court or that records reveal – was determined to promote a qualified black commander, why pick the candidate with the least seniority and education and poorest performance on a standardized test?
“The only thing I can see is that I am a female,” Jones told media.
The EYE can see another reason. Promotions to upper-level police command posts are few, far between and hotly contested. Police chiefs are by the duties of their office political animals, and that’s even true of police chiefs who are not mulling a run for mayor, as Dotson has been doing since Slay announced he would not seek reelection. Whatever Caruso and Jones claim in court, as police veterans they must know that Dotson judged Robinson to have more political “stick” or “steam,” as cops say, than they have – that Dotson thought a promotion of Robinson offered him more favorable political blowback than a promotion of either of them.
One promotion – two discrimination lawsuits – one law firm – one political miscalculation.
Gender at the PD
This political argument does not in any way dismiss the plausibility of gender discrimination in the St. Louis police department. For the record, from Jones’ suit: “The first female did not even graduate from the Police Academy with the same status and rights of male police officers until 1951 (over 140 years after the department was established). The first female did not attain the rank of sergeant until 1973, and the first African-American female did not attain the rank of sergeant until 1977. The first female did not attain the rank of lieutenant until 1987, and the first African-American female did not attain the rank of lieutenant until 1990. The first female did not attain the rank of captain until 1993, and the first African-American female was not promoted to captain until 1996. The first female did not attain the rank of major until 2000. While the first female major in the department’s history is African-American, she never attained the rank of lieutenant colonel and sued the department on the grounds that she was not promoted after participating in a sexual harassment investigation involving a male lieutenant colonel. Her case ultimately settled.”
Gender and the next mayor
Gender will be a factor in the upcoming mayoral election. Lyda Krewson, the 28th Ward alderwoman, already has announced her intention to try to become St. Louis’ first woman mayor, but she is expected to have other challengers seeking the same honor. The “Draft Tishaura” group is trying to persuade Tishaura O. Jones, the city treasurer who recently won her primary to get reelected, to run. Jamilah Nasheed, the state senator from Senate District 5 in the city who recently won her primary, also has been making exploratory calls.
Soon after winning her primary on August 2, Nasheed jumped into the news by turning in signatures to the city election board for a ballot initiative. This is a city charter change that would make Recorder of Deeds an appointed office rather than an elected office, as it is now, with the cost savings intended to purchase body cameras for the police. Skeptics point out that there is no guarantee that the Board of Aldermen (or police union) will approve spending any savings on police cameras – if, indeed, enough money would be saved to start and maintain a police body camera program.
Nasheed is working with billionaire financier and political investor Rex Sinquefield on this small government initiative. What her connection to Sinquefield portends for the mayor’s race and her prospective role in it remains to be seen. There already is one announced black male candidate – Lewis Reed, president of the Board of Aldermen, who lost to Slay handily in 2013 – with another black male candidate (Antonio French, 21st Ward alderman) floating trial balloons in the form of videos. Nasheed’s potential as a black female spoiler, should Tishaura Jones run for mayor, is not lost on anyone.
Elbert and Unity PAC did it
Elbert Walton sent a lengthy screed objecting to The American’s focus on the Fannie Lou Hamer caucus in the Missouri Democrat Party in reviewing the results of the August 2 primary. According to Walton, all of the credit belongs to himself and his political organization.
He pointed out that his daughter, Rochelle Walton-Gray, who won the primary for the County Council’s 4th District, and her husband, Alan Gray, who won the primary in state House District 75, are members – not of the Fannie Lou Hamer caucus, which this paper never claimed – but of the Unity PAC. He described Unity PAC as “a political action black caucus, led by her father, former state representative, Elbert Walton [Elbert speaking of Elbert in the third-person here], which has and continues to have a successful agenda of electing black candidates to replace white office holders in predominantly black political subdivisions of north St. Louis County, including fire districts, school boards, municipal offices, special districts, and state legislative districts, as well as to the democratic central committee of St. Louis County.”
Two thoughts here.
Yes, Elbert is correct. Unity PAC has been working to elect black candidates in North County for a very long time and had a critical role in the success of his daughter, his son-in-law, and his daughter’s brother-in-law, Jay Mosley (in the 68th House District), on August 2.
However, the EYE believes it is not doing any favors to the presumptive new County Council member to tie her so completely to legacy politics and her father, in particular. One need only review Elbert’s work representing the now-impeached mayor of Jennings and the Northeast Ambulance and Fire Protection District, which ended up under court supervision, to understand why he is not her best calling card.
‘Race-neutral’ justice
A ray of hope for justice came from the Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday, August 23, which handed down a decision that vacated the conviction of Roscoe Meeks for first-degree assault and armed criminal action because the trial judge allowed the prosecutor to strike a prospective black juror from the jury pool without providing a “race-neutral” explanation. The state’s highest court was unanimous: You can’t exclude a potential juror because they are black.
