| Author
|
Post |
 
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
On December 27, 1975, the media shocked the nation with the story of two Flint police officers who were involved in a shootout in the Flint police parking lot. The offical police line was that the incident started with an argument over who was going to drive the police cruiser and culminated with a white male officer being shot in the thigh and a black female being shot twice in a hail of bullets from fellow officers.
The next day the Police Chief tried to downplay the incident to the New York Times by telling them the incident did not involve racism or gender issues. Flint Police Chief Herb Adams told the media "he was satisfied the incident was not racially motivated." Captain William Bannister agreed saying "as far as we can determine now, it was not a racial confrontation or a sexual one It was just a dispute between two officers.
The black female was 20 year old Madeline Fletcher, one of 20 black females hired through affirmative action to increase diversity in in the 400 member police force. Photos show the 14 month rookie as an attractive slim 5'5" 110-pound female with a well maintained afro. |
|
|
Sun Jan 13, 2019 11:08 am |
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
The white male officer was 34 year old ex=marine Walter Kalberer, 5'9" and 230-pounds. A blog site entitled "Kitchen Table blog: Women of Color pressed for knowledge" wrote a column on January 4, 1976 that Kalberer was so opposed to women being assigned to work on street patrol that he put it in writing that he would never work with one.
On this day there had been a temporary assignment that put Fletcher and Kalberer working together. The official police version was that Fletcher got in the drivers seat and Kalberer demanded she get out. A scuffle ensued with dueling night sticks before Fletcher got out of the car running a few steps before turning and shooting Kalberer in the thigh. Allegedly she threatened to kill three white male police officers who then opened fire on her. In total there were fourteen shots fired, two of which hit Fletcher.
Last edited by untanglingwebs on Sun Jan 13, 2019 12:19 pm; edited 1 time in total |
|
|
|
Sun Jan 13, 2019 11:22 am |
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
The blog wrote that Kalberer grabbed Fletcher by the coat collar and she fell back kicking at him. Kalberer was said to be spewing obscenities and racial insults at her. She fought back and grabbed her night stick. According to the blog kalberer told Fletcher that if she was "going to fight like a man", he would "treat her like a man".
A former Flint officer, Tom Basinski, had left Flint to be an officer in Chula Vista. Years later on July, 17, 2011, he wrote an article or the Star news about the incident. He had called his former Flint Police friends to gather information. Basinski wrote that he never liked Kalberer and although he had seen kalberer do any thing illegal, Kalberer was known as a rather "badge heavy" officer. "Badge heavy" officers were the ones known to be rude to the public and who threw their weight around. |
|
|
|
Sun Jan 13, 2019 11:38 am |
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
When Basinski hired in to the Flint Police Department in 1969, a bachelors degree was required and the police department was mostly white males. Because Flint had a reputation for being so dangerous, officers usually rode two per car.Basinski said the custom was that the driver drove and the passenger manned "the working side"as they handled the radio and took reports. The Flint officers he spoke to described Fletcher as an "abrasive rookie with a giant pizza sized chip on her shoulder."
Jet magazine wrote two comprehensive stories on Fletcher. On their March 26, 1976 edition, they described how the media was portraying Fletcher as a woman flipping out and being unnecessarily violent while escalating a simple argument into a potentially duel of handguns.
Fletcher was charged with Assault to do great bodily harm less then murder. She had a Detroit Attorney Kenneth Cockerell. Cockerell maintaintained that it "was the racist and sexist atmosphere of the Flint Police Department that led to the confrontation" |
|
|
|
Sun Jan 13, 2019 11:56 am |
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
A sort of "underground' newspaper, the Sun News in Ann Arbor had a story on the trial.
The author, Doug Cunningham, quoted Cockerell arguing in court how Kalberer chased and clubbed Fletcher making her fear for her life.
The Sun also told the testimony the first black female witness, Joy Harrington. IN her testimony she described how Clifford Ames, the Physical Training Instructor at the Academy, told the black women hired with affirmative Acton how the senior officers didn't want them in the department and and how the women "should get used to it.
Harrington also testified to the prevailing racist attitudes that still existed in the Flint Police Department and described how some officer "were so rotten it was unbearable."
The Sun interviewed spectators who expressed the opinion that Kalberer should also have been tried. However Prosecutor Robert Leonard told the media that prosecuting Kalberer would only "further polarize the community." |
|
|
|
Sun Jan 13, 2019 12:13 pm |
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
Jet (July 8, 1976) interviewed Cockerell on the trial. Cockerell had argued that t was Kalberer who "turned a verbal argument into a physical one by grabbing her by the coat collar when she refused to move. Fletcher was said to testify how once the initial physical move was made0 by Kalberer that she was in fear for her life.
After a series of police officers testified that after the combative exchange with the night sticks ended, Fletcher turned and ran about 15 feet, turned and shot Kalberer. However, Officer Perry Hancock testified that he saw Kalberer take several steps towards Fletcher before she fired. Other witnesses described how the initial violence was initiated by Kalberer. |
|
|
|
Sun Jan 13, 2019 12:44 pm |
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
THE FLETCHER TESTIMONY
Fletcher described how her fiance, Officer Tyrone Ward had dropped her of at wor at 7'25 a.m.. After roll call she went to pickup the radio and her briefcase., when Kalberer nastily told her to pick up the shotgun She told him she already had the shot gun. (at that time police procedures were one officer got the shotgun and one got the radio) As she went to the assigned cruiser, Kalberer was standing by the next cruiser.
Fletcher said she entered the drivers side and started to get her gear out. Kelberer then came to the drivers side and demanded to drive and she was to get over. Fletcher advised him she had her year in and she was allowed to drive and the custom was the first officer to the car gets to drive. |
|
|
|
Sun Jan 13, 2019 1:05 pm |
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
Fletcher then slammed his briefcase onto the hood of the cruiser, reached in and grabbed her coat collar. Fletcher descibed how she leaned back and started icking, before she was able to get her night stick. She then told how at this point she was out of the cruiser.and how she missed when she attempted strike Kalberer. Her night stick was lost in the scuffle and kalberer struck her on the head. Fletcher described how she tried to run and kalberer chased her striking her with his night stick.
She told how a group of white officers were yelling: "That .. giving you trouble? Snatch her black ass out of the car and whip her ass man."Fletcher said she became so afraid she pulled out her weapon and shot him.
As she looked around Fletcher said she saw weapons pointed at her. "So i swung around and said don't anybody move" as I began backing up into the bushes. Shots rang out everywhere and she was first hit in the arm and then a second shot entered her left side and exited her right side. Fletcher described how she crawled into the bushes. When the shooting subsided, both black and white officers rescued her from the bushes. |
|
|
|
Sun Jan 13, 2019 2:02 pm |
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
The Prosecutor had told me how he had given Cockerell office space because this was such a high profile case and Cockerell was from Detroit. When the 911 tales and calls came it was apparent they would destroy the case but Leonard ensured that Cockerell got copies. Leonard described how some officers wanted the EMTs to drive around to make sure Fletcher died in transport. The tapes bolstered Cockerell's allegations of blatant racism and sexism in the Flint Police Force.
The jury heard a half hour of the tapes with white officers wishing she would die and the incident would "get rid of the black ..". It was a jury that was comprised of 8 white jurors and 4 black jurors that gave a unanimous acquittal after a 6 hour deliberation.
Fletcher was reinstated and awarded $7,470 from the City of Flint . She was given a 90 day suspension while Kelberer only received a 5 day suspension. |
|
|
|
Sun Jan 13, 2019 2:26 pm |
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
Before Fletcher could return to work she was required to return to the academy. Some reports said she failed but her attorney said the department gave no reason and she lost her job. The union failed to get her job back.
The Police Chief at the time, Max Durbin, tolf the press Miss Fletcher is "unemployable as far as I am concerned".
Kelberer retired from the FPD and died in 2005 at the age of 65. |
|
|
|
Sun Jan 13, 2019 2:33 pm |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Register
Profile
FlintTalk.com Forum Index
> Political Talk
