Retired Black Cops Fight Pension Law

ATLANTA, Feb. 8, 2006
(CBS) Now 81 years old, with bad knees and bad memories, Howard Baugh remembers just how difficult it was being a black cop in Atlanta in 1953. "Hell! It was holy hell," he tells CBS News correspondent Byron Pitts.

74-year-old James Booker, a retired College Park police captain, says his badge was a burden. He couldn't use the restroom in the station, couldn't answer the telephone and couldn't arrest white women. The list was long and humiliating for any black cop in Georgia in the South during segregation.

However, black cops, like all citizens, were entitled to a pension plan. So when Georgia started a supplemental plan for police officers in 1951, James Booker signed up.

"When it came to race I put a 'C' down. During the '60s if you can think back we were known as colored. So I entered a 'C' for colored not spelling it out. Apparently they took the 'C' for Caucasian, which allowed me in," Booker says.

But it wasn't long before Booker and all the other "colored" cops who'd signed up were informed that the retirement fund was for whites only. The policy did eventually change in 1976, when the pension plan opened to all.

Now, 30 years later, the Georgia legislature is finally going to compensate those black officers for the decades of benefits lost. But despite the apparent good will, this proposed legislation only covers black police officers nearing retirement. Current retirees like Howard Baugh and James Booker will receive no compensation. - CBSNews
--------
"Law & Order" people like to say "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time." Well, these guys put in their time, now where's their dime? The retired captain has to work as a crossing guard just to make ends meet. This just isn't Right.

The article says that Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue refused a request from CBS for an interview. I think I'd do the same thing if I was involved in a shameful act such as this. His web site is http://www.gov.state.ga.us/. You can contact him here: http://www.gov.state.ga.us/contact

The person who co-wrote the legislation is Representative Tyrone Brooks*, who says change takes time. Representative Brook's contact information is here. Other state representatives and contact information is on this page.


*Rep. Brooks's name in the article is spelled Tyron Brook. However, there is no one by that name listed in the official site for Georgia state representatives, and I am certain that the name I used is the correct one.

While watching some extended news coverage I couldn't tell if this had become about race or $42 million. Either way, Georgia legislators looked downright silly. I suppose that is how someone looks when trying to explain something that is indefensible.

Yeah, this is sad. One can only wonder where is/was justice.

The part about mistaking the C for Caucasian, and allowing him in, would make a good line for Jay Leno. It's almost too hard to find words to describe it, or words to describe the lunatics that's responsible.

When he wrote down "C" most people thought he was a politician: crook