Rangel Help for GOP?
by Jim Kouri

Congressman Charles Rangel is in the news again. If the Democrat Party doesn't take control of the House of Representative after the November elections, he will quit his House seat.

From comparing President George W. Bush to arguably the worst racist in recent history, Bull Conner, to alleging that blacks are the cannon fodder for the U.S. military, each day brings another Rangelism to national attention. Congressman Rangel never lets the facts get in the way of a good sound bite.

The problem is that Rangel's statements resonate within the African-American community, which is already being fed a steady diet of lies, half-truths and conspiracy theories by the likes of Rev. Jesse Jackson, former President Bill Clinton—America's first black president—and the biggest civil rights blowhard in the country, Rev. Al Sharpton. We are told by the mainstream media that there's a high degree of anger within the black community but these intellectual giants in America's newsrooms fail to see their part in creating that anger.

Wouldn't you be angry if you were constantly told America hates you, white Americans want to keep you impoverished, many of your fellow citizens don't care if you're sick or dying, and the United States establishment wants to exploit you? Most folks, white or black, would be angry after being barraged with such messages on a regular basis. And Charlie Rangel can always be counted on to capitalize on that anger.

Let me tell about the real Charlie Rangel as evidenced in a little known story of how a New York City detective knocked the robust politician on his keister following the utterance of a Rangelism in the 1960s.

Sidney was one of New York City's first African-American detectives. In fact, he was so good at policing in the city's toughest neighborhoods that he was promoted to the coveted rank of 1st Grade Detective in the NYPD, the youngest in New York's history. A former Marine—one of the first blacks to be accepted into the Marine Corps in 1945—Sid was your consummate police officer. Tough, relentless and proud, Sid tempered his tough street persona with intelligence and a sense of fairness that won the respect of his superiors, his fellow cops and the citizens he served. Sid came from a black family of achievement with one brother becoming a police captain and another serving as a colonel in the US Army. I partnered with him during his later years.

While still a young detective, Sidney arrested a black man who was dealing drugs on the  streets and schoolyards of Harlem. The drug dealer sold heroin to black youngsters who were being told over and over again since they were knee high that their lives were hopeless in an America that at best cared little for them, at worst wanted them in prison or dead. They were indoctrinated with this rhetoric by the likes of Charlie Rangel, white liberals and their echo chamber, the mainstream news media. Detective Sid had little compassion for a man who sold drugs to black kids.

So Charles Rangel, attorney-at-law, visited my partner Sid in order to get him to back off and perhaps change some of the testimony should the case go to trial. The young detective told Rangel, "No way. That skell sells poison to kids." At that point Charlie Rangel, a known bully in Harlem and northern Manhattan, called Sid an Uncle Tom and got in his face. The six-foot tall detective hauled off and bopped him right in his face and Rangel went down.

After getting up from the floor and brushing himself off, the opulent future congressman made some empty threats of retaliation. However Rangel never filed departmental charges of police brutality. Sid believed Charlie Rangel knew if he did he would find himself in a jackpot over witness tampering and he may have had to kiss his political career goodbye.

If there are any incentives for disillusioned conservatives to hold their noses and vote for GOP congressional candidates this November, surely the prospect of a Congress without the likes of Rangel is one of them. An added plus would be the rescue of Harlem blacks from the Liberal Plantation, of which Rangel is a primary overseer.

Jim Kouri, CPP, is currently the fifth vicepresident of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and a staff writer for the New Media Alliance.