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Valley minority rights leaders await results of city investigation
December 2, 2006
By NICK MARTIN
TRIBUNE
Tempe's mayor and police chief spent much of Friday again apologizing for a police-produced television program that showed an officer telling two black men they could get out of a ticket by performing a rap.
Both city leaders said they were caught by surprise the day before when they learned about the "Tempe StreetBeat" episode, which had been airing repeatedly on the city's cable channel during November.
Publication info
This story originally ran Dec. 2, 2006 in the East Valley Tribune in Arizona.
After the fact
This story, which I broke the day before, was followed by the New York Times, and Associated Press. CNN, Fox News and ABC's "Good Morning America" picked it up too.
In a private meeting at City Hall on Friday morning, Mayor Hugh Hallman and Police Chief Tom Ryff apologized personally to the Revs. Jarrett Maupin and Oscar Tillman, two minority rights leaders who had voiced outrage and disappointment about the show.
The city officials then apologized again at an afternoon news conference.
"I want to make things very clear," Hallman said. "The video that was shown on our Channel 11 is completely unacceptable."
Both Hallman and Ryff moved quickly Thursday night after learning of the minority leaders’ anger over the program from the Tribune.
They gave initial public apologies, yanked the show from the air and vowed an investigation into it.
"We did not hide," Hallman said at the conference. "We brought it forward."
The swift actions seemed to satisfy Maupin, president of the National Action Network's Arizona chapter, and Tillman, chairman of the Maricopa County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Both said, however, they would wait to see what the investigation finds.
"This is in no way excusing what happened on this day," Maupin said. "But we are taking steps forward."
In the "StreetBeat" episode, host Sgt. Chuck Schoville is shown actually pulling over two men in August in the parking lot of Arizona Mills mall.
"No littering ticket if the two of you just do a little rap about -- what do you want to do a rap about? Littering? About the dangers of littering," Schoville tells them.
The men each perform a short rap and laugh, shaking Schoville's hand.
Moments later, as the two men are going on their way, Schoville says "Raiders in the Super Bowl this year."
"You're right," one of the men says.
"You know why you say I'm right?" Schoville jokes. "Because I've got a gun and a badge. I'm always right."
All three laugh.
Schoville, a 25-year member of the force, was out of town when the show he hosted for five years was pulled, Hallman said. He has not responded to a request through the police department to comment.
Ryff, who took over the force Monday from Ralph Tranter, said the investigation into the matter would likely be fast.
"We have it on video. We know what happened," Ryff said.
The investigation will be conducted by police internal investigators and the city diversity manager. It will focus not just on the incident, but on the oversight and conduct of the show in general, Ryff said.
Neither Schoville nor any of the other city employees involved with "StreetBeat," including credited producer officer Brandon Banks, had been punished or suspended.
Banks defended the show the day before, saying Schoville told the men he pulled over they would not get a ticket prior to making the rap request. They could have said no, according to Banks, who had been at the scene with Schoville.
The footage was cut for time considerations, Banks said. His account, however, does not match the cut footage he released to the Tribune.
In the footage, which is more than seven minutes long, Schoville is seen quizzing the driver about littering, his suspended license and, after learning the man was born in Chicago, gangs from that area.
"You don’t know about that from Chicago?" Schoville asks.
"No, I go to school," the man says.
Banks said the department has no record of the men's names because they were let off with a warning.
Ryff said he will not direct the investigation to find the men, but if investigators feel it's necessary, they will.