The acquittal of Jeffrey Cotton, a Houston police officer, has brought racial tension in Houston, Texas to the boiling point.  As the New York Times points out, Houston has a reputation as a tolerant and racially diverse community.  But when a jury composed of ten white and two black jurors ruled that Mr. Cotton acted according to proper police procedure local opinion quickly divided along racial lines.

An officers in an overwhelmingly white, upscale Houston neighborhood saw two black youths getting out of a parked car and jumped to the conclusion that the car had been stolen.  The boys were told to get face down on the ground.  At that point, the officer called for back-up and a second officer, Jeffrey Cotton, arrived. 

That’s when Bobby and Marion Tolan came out of their house, saw their son, Bobby lying face down on the ground, and started accusing the officers of abusing their authority.  When officer Cotton threw Marion Tolan against the garage door, her son started getting up and was shot in the abdomen.  Fortunately, the shooting wasn’t fatal.

Most white observers would read a story like that and identify with the officers.  In their eyes the two young men were suspected felons so, of course, they were handled roughly.  Officer Cotton thought Bobby Tolan had a gun and fired his weapon in self-defense.  From a white perspective, there was nothing racial about the incident.  Who knew that an ex-baseball player owned the home?

Most black residents, including it seems, the entire civil rights community, see the incident differently.  Would the first officer on the scene have reacted the same way if he had seen two white adolescents pull into the driveway and get out of the car?  To ask the question is to answer it.  How often do police officers in upscale neighborhoods like Bellaire see young white boys getting out of vehicles?  Wouldn’t this be a regular occurrence?

But this officer thought the young men looked suspicious because this was a white neighborhood and the kids were black.  There is no other explanation for the officer’s behavior.  There is nothing intrinsically suspicious about getting out of a car.

When officer one called for back-up, officer two uncritically embraced officer one’s interpretation of the event and acted accordingly.  Seeing two black adults arrive on the scene did little to relieve Mr. Cotton’s anxiety.  The woman was talk-talk-talking–she wouldn’t listen.

But when a mother comes out of her own home and sees two police officers holding her son at gunpoint who needs to be talking and who needs to be listening?  Obviously, Marion Tolan was in a position to correctly interpret the scene and that information needed to be communicated to the officer.

Instead, Officer Cotton threw her against the garage door.

Why?

It was this rash act that caused young Bobby Tolan to rise from the ground.  What son wouldn’t?

At that point, sure, the officer was in a difficult position.  If the young man was a car thief he might have a gun.

But it should never have come to that point.

It isn’t surprising that the two black jurors came over to the majority point of view.  Two white jurors seated with ten black jurors would likely have voted to convict.  It’s classic juror psychology.

Black people and white people, generally speaking, interpret complex events very differently.  Whites see the Cotton-Tolan event through Cotton’s eyes; black residents see it from the perspective of the Tolan family.

This is what concerns me about the Curtis Flowers case.  Ninety percent of black Mississippians voted for Barack Obama; ninety percent of white Mississippians voted against him.  Regardless of the issue, blacks tend to side with the president while whites oppose him.  When you see black jurors holding out for an acquittal while white jurors unfailingly vote to convict are we dealing with the same perception gap applied to a different situation?  And if that’s true, is the evidence in the Flowers case driving juror perception?

The Skip Gates case in Cambridge provides a similar scenario, as does Jeremiah Wright’s “God damn America” rhetoric.  In all these cases, white and black Americans read the evidence through different lenses. 

Can we really believe that race had nothing to do with the Jeffrey Cotton incident?

It depends who you ask. 

When two groups of jurors are evaluating the same evidence and dividing along racial lines you have reasonable doubt almost by definition.  A strong case will stand the scrutiny of any jury regardless of racial composition.

Racial claims continue in Bellaire shooting case

By BRIAN ROGERS

HOUSTON CHRONICLE

May 11, 2010, 10:19PM

An unarmed man who was shot in his driveway by a Bellaire Police Department sergeant in 2008 continued to say he was the victim of racial profiling after the officer was found not guilty of wrongdoing by a Harris County jury Tuesday.

The jury deliberated about four hours before finding Bellaire police Sgt. Jeff Cotton not guilty of aggravated assault by a peace officer in the Dec. 31, 2008, shooting of Robert Tolan.

Cotton is white; Tolan is black. The shooting prompted complaints by the Tolan family and community activists that Bellaire police have a history of racial profiling. The family is suing Cotton, the police department and the city of Bellaire, but the lawsuit has been on hold pending the outcome of Cotton’s criminal trial.

No one in the Tolan family would comment after the jury verdict was returned, but a statement issued by the family’s civil lawyer said: “The city has not changed its policy of racial profiling. Indeed, the city — from Mayor Cindy Siegel on down — has dug in its heels in defense of the unconstitutional practices which very nearly led to Robbie’s death at the hands of Jeffrey Cotton.”

As he was leaving the courtroom with more than a dozen friends and family, tears appeared to be filling Tolan’s eyes. A man’s voice could be heard shouting, “Are you (expletive) kidding me?”

After the verdict, Cotton said he was glad the week-long trial was over.

“I just want to get back to work,” Cotton said as he stood next to his wife and attorneys. He has been on administrative duty with pay since the shooting.

“He’s a typical policeman,” said his attorney, Paul Aman. “He’s very emotional, but he’s trying to hide that emotion, like they’ve all been trained.”

Aman said Cotton was devastated when he found out Tolan, then 23, was unarmed. The 10-year veteran officer had testified that he fired in self-defense after seeing Tolan digging in his waistband as he got up off the ground and turned to him during a chaotic scene in the early morning hours in the Tolan family’s driveway.

“Is he happy (Tolan) was shot? Of course not. He feels terrible about it,” Aman said.

The jurors did not comment after the verdict.

Early-morning events

The incident unfolded around 2 a.m., after another Bellaire police officer pulled Tolan and his cousin over on suspicion of car theft. According to testimony, the officer mistakenly entered the wrong license plate number into his dashboard computer. The number was matched to the plate of another vehicle that had been reported stolen.

Tolan was shot 32 seconds after Cotton arrived at the scene. Both Cotton and Tolan testified that he was shot as he rose to protest Cotton’s handling of Tolan’s mother, Marian Tolan.

In the press release, the Tolan family said they hope for a different outcome in their civil rights lawsuit against Cotton and the Bellaire Police Department, accusing them of racial profiling. Cotton has denied Robert Tolan’s race affected his actions.

A consultant hired by the city of Bellaire to prepare a report to the state concluded there was not enough information to indicate whether Bellaire officers conducted racial profiling. The Houston NAACP blasted the report when it was released, as well as the verdict Tuesday.

“I’m shocked. The NAACP is shocked. It’s truly a travesty,” said Yolanda Smith, executive director of the Houston branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. “I believe the evidence the prosecution presented was more than enough to convict.”

Donna Hawkins, a spokeswoman for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, said the office respected the jury’s decision. Prosecutors Clint Greenwood and Steve Morris declined to comment.

City’s attorney responds

William Helfand, an attorney representing the city in the case, said at a press conference Tuesday afternoon at Bellaire City Hall that the “jury’s verdict demonstrates that there was no excessive force here.” Addressing concerns about community backlash over the verdict, Helfand said, “Hopefully, people will have an understanding that opinions have to be formed based on the facts.”

The son of former major league player Bobby Tolan, Robert Tolan played baseball for Bellaire High School and was pursuing a professional baseball career at the time of the shooting. After the shooting he spent three weeks in the hospital. The bullet, which entered his chest under his right nipple, remains in his liver.