Tawana Brawley case: The victim is turned into the criminal

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Tawana Brawley leaves the Brooklyn church where her mother was given sanctuary.

SOCIALIST ACTION JULY 1988 11 Recently, Glenda Brawley invoked the age-old practice of seeking sanctuary in a church to avoid prosecution by Duchess County New York officials. Brawley's actions merited continuous coverage by no less than The New York Times, which went so far as to note when she moved from one church to another.

While stating that the concept of sanctuary is no longer legally recognized, law-enforcement officers hesitated to remove her from the church and take this fugitive into custody.

What atrocities against the well-being of the people of New York have been committed by this "criminal?" Has she been involved in selling heroin to school children, mass murder, or armed robbery? Or is she perhaps a wanted white-collar criminal who has swindled the government, embezzled millions of dollars, or trafficked in illegal arms sales to some foreign government?

Brawley has done none of these things. Rather, she recently failed to appear before a grand jury which was supposed to be figuring out who was responsible for an attack on her 16-year-old daughter, Tawana.

Attempts to discredit Tawana Six months ago, Tawana Brawley was discovered wrapped in a garbage bag with chunks of her hair cut off. Her upper torso was smeared with animal feces, and racist epithets were scrawled over her body.

The Black teenager had been missing for four days. She gave an initial incomplete statement to the policê indicating that she had been held captive and assaulted by up to six white men, one of whom had shown a police-like badge. She made identifications of three of the men—a county cop among them.

Her accusations have been met with nothing but scepticism by both the authorities and the major press. The focus of both local and federal officials has been on efforts to disprove Tawana's story— rather than to discover what happened to her and investigate those she identified as being among her attackers.

Articles in the press have discussed her family history and supposed character. Photos taken in the hospital were leaked to the press of Tawana, then 15, partially unclothed.

This type of coverage and cover-up by media and government officials is most reminiscent of the response a few years ago to the Atlanta Child Murders. As a committee of mothers of the missing and murdered children was formed, they and their children were vilified in the press.

Several parents were told their children must have run away. Other parents who had just buried children were accused of murdering them. All of the children were depicted as "street hustlers," doing anything and everything for a buck, bringing whatever horrors had occurred upon themselves.

Law-enforcement agencies did not even begin investigating the deaths as linked until the buildup of a national public outcry. With the national spotlight on Atlanta, local elected officials continued to spend their time in going after the leaders of the mothers' committee, claiming they had appropriated funds, and so on.

In the present case, little or no account seems to be taken that whatever the specifics may be, this young woman was discovered in a state which at the least indicates she suffered a very traumatic and devastating experience.

A racist court system With the state's machinery concentrating on attempts to undermine the plaintiff's credibility, the Brawley family, in consultation with two attorneys, has simply refused further cooperation with the state until a special prosecutor they can trust is appointed.

In what has been described as a "red-neck county," both the Duchess County district attorney, William Grady, and a local special prosecutor excused themselves from the case, stating an unspecified conflict of interest.

The governor's appointee, Robert Abrams, the current state attorney general, hardly is one to inspire confidencegiven his refusal to take aggressive actions against those previously charged with racist acts in New York state. Soon after his appointment, he attempted to assign a D.A. to the case whom the Brawley lawyers had already rejected.

The Brawleys and the team around them do not expect justice from a racist and sexist court system. They view their nonparticipation as a method of exposing the bias of the corrupt judicial machinery.

While the course the Brawleys have chosen is understandable, their continued silence, along with the emphasis on one prosecutor over another, is stymying their supporters. The silence leaves a gap in public information, which gets filled with speculations and innuendos.

Defectors from defense team How easily this can be done has been demonstrated during the past month, when two former supporters went to government officials and the media with claims that the Brawley lawyers and advisers are doing everything from spying on each other to perpetrating a hoax on everyone.

State officials have urged the attorney general to investigate the attorneys rather than Tawana Brawley's charges. The grand jury is now reportedly doing just that.

And what is the substance of these statements by the defectors from the Brawley camp? Samuel McClease was paraded through the media after claiming that he had been hired by a Brawley adviser to make secret tapes of discussions among them. He is now reportedly being indicted for perjury after his tapes, quickly presented to the grand jury, turned out to be blank.

After earlier alleging that the whole case was "a pack of lies, " Perry McKinnon, a former cop who is now a security guard, in a six-hour interview with The New York Times on June 21 could only say that he still doesn't know what happened to Tawana Brawley last November, and he doesn't know whether the lawyers know.

Nevertheless, McKinnon quotes Brawley's lawyers as stating that they knew "they had no evidence" against some of the white officials accused. This is not a surprising statement, if true, given the relationship of forces—a young Black woman's word against white law-enforcement officers. Nor is it unusual for a victim of a crime not to have all of the proof needed to convict the attackers.

Victim carries burden of proof?

What deserves comment is that the Brawleys, rather than the law-enforcement agencies involved, are expected to make the case for the prosecution. Unfortunately, this is not so unusual either. Blacks and other minority groups are easily accused and convicted of crimes in this country with little or no proof being offered. It doesn't work well the other way around.

Nor is it unusual for any woman making an accusation of sexual misconduct in this society to have difficulty proving that she was attacked. Rape is just about the hardest crime to gather evidence for and to prove. The common assumption still prevails that a woman who is attacked "asks for it."

What is rare is for the victim of a crime to need lawyers to defend herself or himself. There is little question that had Tawana Brawley been born white and her attackers Black the scenario being played out would be very different. A quick look at the history books during any period of this country's history readily confirms this.

Tactical errors

The Brawley lawyers are certainly attempting to use the case to further expose the racism inherent in U.S. life today and are taking a great amount of heat for this. Illusions that the court system is fair and impartial are just as dangerous to those fighting for social change as are illusions in politicians of the two-party system.

The lawyers deserve no condemnation for seeking to expose the system which serves the rich and not the workers of this country. However, the "non-cooperation" policy is backfiring and eroding support. The fight for one prosecutor over another has become a diversion delaying the case.

The lawyers, moreover, have not correctly assessed the meaning of the direct appointment by New York Gov. Mario Cuomo of State Attorney Robert Abrams MALCOLM LI Frank Zita/AF as special prosecutor. Abrams' appointment puts the responsibility directly on the highest elected officials in the state for any further attempts to sweep this case under the carpet and continue the coverup.

Tawana Brawley's testimony before a grand jury would eliminate the excuses and allow supporters to demand that these officials use all of the force of the state to bring the guilty parties to justice.

Importance of mobilizations The mobilizations of people demanding justice for the Brawleys are the reason the case continues to be front-page news. In the Howard Beach case, similarly, mass street demonstrations forced the news media and the court system to respond to the public outrage. Some convictions were obtained. The Brawley family is committed to seeking justice for Tawana. The best way to expose the perpetrators of this attack is to get out the facts of the case. Without the truth being known, the potential to mobilize large numbers of people is being lost.

Black, women's, and Latino organizations, labor unions, and all others dedicated to civil liberties and simple human dignity should support the Brawleys' cause and join in demanding an investigation and action by the appropriate authorities.

In the meantime, Glenda Brawley, who never should have been called to testify, still faces the maximum penalties of 30 days in jail and a $250 fine for not appearing before a grand jury which her life experience told her not to trust for one moment. They're ready to put her into jail as soon as she leaves the sanctuary of the church.

Hands off Glenda Brawley!

Justice for Tawana Brawley!

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