The Power of the "Word"©

by Alton H. Maddox, Jr.


Twenty-five years ago, during Howard Beach, Gov. Mario Cuomo accused me of having "zero credibility" in the Black community for demanding a special prosecutor. By 1986, Cuomo knew me very well and he knew that his characterization of me as having "zero credibility" in the Black community was also a lie. He knew most Blacks, however. This was his problem

It was at this point that I realized the power of the word "thank you". I had already represented Blacks and legal principles pro bono in a string of legal cases. Some of these cases involved his office. If I had been a European, he knew that a public "thank you" to me would have been deafening from Europeans. Since Blacks were unappreciative, he could attack me with impunity and Blacks would still support him and his son politically.

When I viewed the appearances of Mrs. Jean Griffith Sandiford and Rev. Herbert Daughtry on NY1's "Inside City Hall" on December 20, 2011, I did not expect unabashed praise for Gov. Cuomo and Assistant Attorney General Charles Hynes in 1986-1987. Assuming arguendo that these men had a different take on race than all other white elected officials, they were, nonetheless, doing their jobs; that is, to defend and enforce the U.S. Constitution.

In the first year of law school in contracts, law students are taught the pre-existing duty rule. This is why no police officer could have accepted a reward for finding Tawana Brawley. It was his or her job. On the other hand, law enforcement agents like Steven Pagones are subject to public criticism for breaching a public duty.

When praise is based on a double standard, it should be roundly criticized. I received neither praise nor compensation from the Griffith family and it is wrong to praise Cuomo and Hynes at my expense. I never received a "thank you" from the Griffith family. It is a "badge of slavery" to give thanks to the slavemaster and not to Frederick Douglass.

Unlike Cuomo and Hynes, I did not owe the Griffith family anything. There was no quid pro quo that had passed between the family and me. I saw a legal principle in this racially-motivated murder and New York was practicing a double standard of justice. Today, Blacks are praising Plessy v. Ferguson.

The "right to travel" had been accorded to former enslaved Africans and their descendants during Reconstruction. It was never enacted for the legal protection of the late Yankel Rosenbaum. This is the doctrine of original intent. I assumed the role of a private attorney general in Howard Beach out of necessity and to protect the race. Blacks should at least respect each other.

The family of Rosenbaum did not need an attorney who had to put his own career and life on the line to secure justice for the Rosenbaum family. New York readily indicted Lemrick Nelson. After the jury was unable to connect the dots between Nelson's actions and Rosenbaum's death, the federal government stepped into the void. The rest is history. The prosecutor's office was originally established to protect "whites only".

For my part in Howard Beach, New York illegally issued a disciplinary penalty against me at the behest of the court officers association and Black selected officials. This association had also sued me on behalf of a member of the union for defamation. This penalty was accompanied with a warning: "Two strikes and you are out". It had also initiated a criminal action against me in Manhattan.

I was a dead man walking for demanding civil rights for all Blacks. The cases of Tawana Brawley and Rev. Al Sharpton would push me over the edge. After Howard Beach, New York warned me to leave Blacks alone. Negro affairs was white folks' business. The plantation system, with plantation overseers, is still intact. The new overseers are former slaves.

If Black people were not out of their minds, I would still be practicing law today. This is a legal lynching and Blacks have closed their eyes. The lesson from the Montgomery Bus Boycott is that when Blacks run away from evil, whites get religion. Whites have always played the race card with a poker face. Blacks in New York are running to evil.

When Gov. David Paterson had the power to issue, at the very least, a pardon, in my case, I decided, instead, to put all of my marbles in John White's basket. It was my hope that Gov. Paterson would do the right thing for John White. Instead of doing the right thing, he, instead, commuted John White's unconstitutional sentence.

I have saved my own case for Gov. Andrew Cuomo. He and his father were intimately involved in my unlawful disbarment. Gov. Mario Cuomo had immediately terminated a five-year disciplinary penalty against Michael Dowd for humanitarian reasons. New York, according to Gov. Mario Cuomo, was denying to Dowd's family food, clothing and shelter after Dowd had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

I was also hit with a five-year disciplinary penalty after Howard Beach for protecting the civil rights of Blacks. The U.S. Supreme Court denied my petition for writ of certiorari in 2009 even though New York admitted that it had disbarred me without my knowledge since I had insisted on fighting the illegal, five-year suspension. In other words, "no Negro has any rights that whites are bound to respect.

Black people are always asking me what they can do to jumpstarting my petition for reinstatement to practice law. The answer is simple. Without any censorship from the Black media, Blacks, can, en masse, publicly say "thank you". The "thank you" should emanate from religious, political, professional, labor, business, and social organizations. This is the power of "thank you". The Cuomos will get the message.

Too honest for the White Press and too black for much of today's Black Press; bullet columnist Alton Maddox upsets the same people and status quo as he did as an uncompromising Defense Attorney. He is also a founding member of the Freedom Party. Please sign his Petition to save "Like It Is." Contact him at c/o UAM P.O. BOX 35 BRONX, NY 10471