“Pittsburgh’s Finest” – The Powerful Pittsburgh Police Force

The bad thing about crimes that occur in Pittsburg are when they involve our very own - "Pittsburgh's Finest" police officers. For this to be one of the 'most-livable' cities in the U.S., sometimes I ask myself, "Why" when we Pittsburghers have some very strange crimes taking place, and why do some of the crimes involve crimes committed by people that are hired 'to protect and serve'?

What do you think possesses some of the people living here to do the things that they do??? Some of the police-related crimes are alleged to be racially motivated. The question I have is WHY? Why are there so many racially motivated crimes and crimes committed involving police officers in one of the most livable cities in America?

Racially Motivated Crimes – Driving While Black
In 1995, just three years after the beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles (see the below link) an African American man was murdered after being severely beaten by police officers (similar to the Rodney King beating) after driving a Jaguar through Brentwood, a suburb of Pittsburgh.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROn_9302UHg

For what many believe was a racially motivated beating, Johnny Gammage, cousin to Ray Seals former Pittsburgh Steeler. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Seals) was murdered in the Pittsburgh for what many believe was due to the fact that he was an African American man driving a Jaguar in a predominately white community. The very sad thing about this incident was that a life was taken of a person that was trying to make a difference in life... I had researched a link once describing the community and youth related things that Mr. Gammage was working on. (I will add that later to this post after I obtain the information again).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Gammage

For more information regarding the Johnny Gammage incident, please visit the youtube link, wikipedia, metafilter and other links. Just google the name and you will get many hits regarding this incident.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LgEdMtZIVQ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Gammage

http://www.nommoproductions.com/

http://www.metafilter.com/45811/His-name-was-Johnny-Gammage

To my knowledge, Johnny Gammage’s beating was not video-taped; however, the police officers took the liberty to beat him to death. Mr. Gammage was a cousin to one of the Pittsburgh Steelers Ray Seals.

I was astonished after attended one of the events held at the Carnegie Library in Oakland, focused on discussing the death of Johnny Gammage that was attended by Coroner Cyril Wecht, the Citizen Police Review Board, attorneys, police officers, and concerned citizens, and one of the things said by one of the legal professional was, "If you, or you have a relative that is a young African American man living in Pittsburgh between the ages of 19 to 30, it may be wise to leave the city, because there appears to be a crime for driving while black" in the city of Pittsburgh.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RhXU-2EJDE&feature=related

There are many more websites that discuss this event, I will list a few below.

http://www.kmf.org/gammage/newshistory.html

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pshell/gammage/flyer.html

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-480928321.html

The Johnny Gammage incident reminds me the incident that ignited the Los Angeles Riot and civil unrest of 1992, described on the links listed below.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=2509504n

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_riots_of_1992

http://www.prop1.org/legal/prisons/kinga2.htm

The below link will document the outcome of the verdict of the trial.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_n6_v89/ai_17932592/

I happened to be living in LA at the time and must admit, that incident and the time following it, was one of the most frightening times of my entire 15 years of living in LA. More frightening than the biggest earthquake I ever encounted while living in LA. The energy and racial tension was so intense, it inspired me to write a poem that later developed into a song that I've posted to youtube. I wrote the song, based on the way I felt at the time following the beating of Rodney King and the outcome of the trial when the officers were acquitted. The song is called, "It's a Mental Game," the link is posted below. The footage is actual footage relating to and following the LA riot. Please check out MY video It's A Mental Game and share your thoughts with me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWnqgPSKWW4&feature=related

There are many other crimes committed again individuals in the Pittsburgh and surrounding areas that are alleged to be racially motivated, and/or police brutality related crimes. Some are mentioned in the link http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/features/police/.

Death of A Child – By The Officers Hired to Protect and Serve
Another interesting case involving a death committed by one of our Pittsburgh's Finest police officers involve the death of a young African American male named Michael Ellerbee that was shot in his back while fleeing from the police in 2002. More details in the below links.

http://www.wpxi.com/news/21674262/detail.html

http://www.defenestrator.org/ellerbe_suit

http://www.fansoffieger.com/hickenbottom.htm

http://www.ellerbe-store.co.cc/michael-ellerbe.htm

Another interesting blog-site that can be viewed links is below that talks more about the Michael Ellerbee, and Johnny Gammage case.
http://tobyspeople.com/anthropik/2005/10/whos-johnny-gammage/

I found the crimes in Pittsburgh to be interesting considering this is supposed to be one of the most liveable cities in the US. Wow, I wonder, what is one of the most unliveable cities like to live in? This is pretty scary.

Some of the things that can be developed from emotions resulting from the crimes are various, powerful art-forms. For example, in addition to the Mental Game song I wrote and later produced video, I've written other poems based on experiences. I entered a poetry contest back in around 2002 at the University of Pittsburgh and recited a poem that I wrote about love, and I won an 'honorable mention' for my poem; however, the 1st place winner that goes by the name 'Jasiri X'. Jasiri X wrote a very powerful poem regarding the death of Michael Ellerbee, since then he has written many more poems, songs and commentaries. He and a description of his writing and reporting passion can be viewed by googling RealTalkXpress.com. You can see Jasiri X on the below link where he describes his creative way of using the Internet by reporting on the news, community issues with video on a weekly basis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qX-3HuB0Oc.

The possibilities of using the Internet for getting information and displaying your voice on various views are endless.