July 27–August 3, 2000

city beat

Don’t Speak For Me

People at 26th and Oxford have their own ideas about the Thomas Jones affair.

by Daryl Gale

What are residents in North Philly saying about the shootout and violent arrest of Thomas Jones in their neighborhood? About six o’clock Sunday evening, as hundreds began gathering at Morris Brown A.M.E. Church at 25th and Montgomery to hear the Rev. Al Sharpton and others speak out against police brutality, neighborhood residents James Radford and Larry King sat on a stoop across the street taking it all in.

As a steady stream of journalists, camera operators and well-dressed parishioners filed past, Radford and King talked about the police beating, the media and their neighborhood.

"This neighborhood has been crawling with news people since the cops beat that boy down," Radford says, "But nobody stopped to ask us anything. They just want to talk to the ‘leaders.’ I never elected those men to speak for me, and nobody else around here did either."

"I know he [Thomas Jones] committed crimes, and he needs to be in jail," King chimes in. "Ain’t no doubt about that. But the police committed a crime, too. Even if he’s the worst criminal in the world, they didn’t have to stomp the shit out of him. Punishment is for the judge to decide."

"And all this," Radford waves dismissively at the TV news satellite trucks lining Montgomery Avenue, "all this is for TV ratings. Tomorrow the TV people will be gone, Al Sharpton will be gone, the crowd will be gone, and we’ll still be here, afraid to go out at night. Nothing will change. It’ll just be business as usual."

By way of illustration, Radford points to a group of tough-looking young men about 50 yards beyond the satellite trucks.

"See those boys over there? Those boys are drug dealers. They’re usually right here in front of the church, but with all this commotion, they just moved a half a block down. Come back tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and they’ll still be working right here. Where will Al Sharpton be? Old folks around here are so scared they’re in the house by 5 p.m. and won’t come back out. Why ain’t Jerry whatever-his-name-is from the NAACP protesting that? You can sell poison to black kids all you want, but don’t let a cop hurt a criminal, then there’s a problem."

David Jones (no relation to the suspect) has been a SEPTA bus driver for 20 years. Monday afternoon he’s wheeling the 48 bus up 29th Street, a few blocks from where the beating took place. Jones, a 40-year-old African-American, has strong opinions on the police beating, just like most folks in the neighborhood.

"Thomas Jones ain’t worth the hair on a dead rat’s ass," Jones starts out. "Rotten bastard has a criminal record a mile long. Beating up on little old ladies, stealing kids’ bicycles, robbing people left and right. The boy is as wrong as two Milli Vanilli songs. So he carjacks somebody, leads police on a high-speed chase, shoots it out with them and steals a cop car. Now, what the cops did to him was wrong, but he was wronger. I hope every last one of his victims sues his ass off in civil court so that he doesn’t get to profit from his life of crime. I know the police went overboard, but Jones reaped what he sowed. The cops acted on emotion and adrenaline, which to me indicates a lack of training and professionalism, and that’s what our complaint should be."

On the Sharpton-Mondesire connection, David Jones is more than a bit cynical.

"Sharpton is a hustler. He has his own agenda, which is to glorify Sharpton, and that’s fine. Just admit it so the rest of us can move on. And Mondesire is a hustler too. But I think Mondesire is at least sincere, which I can’t say for Sharpton. I just think Mondesire should pick his battles more carefully. When a black man kills another black man, which happens all the time, you don’t see hide nor hair of Mondesire. But let a cop do it, and he’s on TV more than Regis Philbin. That’s part of the reason I won’t join the NAACP. I don’t think they speak to the real, everyday problems of brothers and sisters in Philadelphia. Just the ones that make headlines."

At 26th and Oxford Monday afternoon, all is quiet. Philadelphia’s most famous corner is freshly swept and the journalists have all gone home. Less than a half a block away at T&J Auto Repair, veteran car mechanic Joe Fields, 70, is working on a Ford and talking about the police beating to 43-year-old neighbor Moses Hodges.

"The issue is excessive force, plain and simple," Hodges says. "I know Jones is a bad guy, but he still deserves due process. It seems like he’s accountable for what he did, but the cops are not accountable for what they did to him. They can’t deny it. It was caught on film."

"A picture is worth a thousand words, right?" Fields laughs. "Then what does the picture of the cops putting the boot to him tell you? Look, I just don’t trust Lynne Abraham to do the right thing when it comes to prosecuting cops. She looks for an excuse not to punish cops when they’re wrong."

An eyewitness to much of the action that day, Hodges takes exception to the police response in general.

"You should have seen all the cop cars," Hodges says, "They came from every direction at a hundred miles an hour. Cops were everywhere. They were all over him in a second. Any other time you try to call the cops in this neighborhood.… Well, just call one. See when the cops come. If they come at all, consider yourself damn lucky."

Joe Fields is still stuck on Lynne Abraham.

"Our DA is a racist. Look what she did to Judge [Frederica] Massiah-Jackson. I believe she hates black people, and the only reason she’s defending those black cops is because they’re cops. I want to see a fair investigation, but if she’s involved, it’ll just be a cover-up, and that won’t do anybody any good. There are some good people in this neighborhood, and they deserve to see some good come out of this."