‘Attacks’ on Sheriff Tony are about facts, not race ■

As an African-American man,

I have experienced racism in my life on many occasions. And so I know what racism looks like and what it smells like. The recent revelations about Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony are not racial, but they are political. But guess what, that’s politics. I understand politics and the tricks of politics because I ran for county commissioner in 2004 and in

2008.

When a heavyweight boxer steps into the ring to fight, it would be crazy for him to think that he’s not going to get punched. And, if he didn’t want to be punched, he should never have gotten into the ring to fight.

The moment Tony accepted the appointment to be sheriff, he stepped into the ring of politics. So how dare he and his supporters complain and cry about being attacked politically. And it’s offensive to me, as an African-American man, that some of his backers would play the race card when there is no trace of the attacks against him being racist.

How could it possibly be racist when a white governor appointed him and he was almost entirely surrounded by white people at his swearing-in press conference in January 2019.

After all, Gov. Ron DeSantis was playing politics from the very start when he appointed an African-American man because he was aware of the African-American support that former Sheriff Scott Israel had, particularly among AfricanAmerican pastors. And so the governor played the old divide and conquer trick with the African-American community by appointing Tony.

Now African-Americans are divided in their vote because Tony is black. No one had ever heard of Tony before. You know why? Because he was living his life in Boca Raton not thinking about Broward County or the black community. Not to mention the fact that he changed his political party from Republican to Democrat the day after he was appointed. Why did he change his party? Politics. That’s why.

Where is Tony’s record of supporting the cause and candidates of the Democratic party? Tony and his handlers knew he didn’t stand a chance of winning in a Democrat-dominated Broward County, so he changed his political party. It sounds like politics to me.

Tony complains about politics and says that politics ruined the Broward Sheriff ’s Office and he’s there to clean it up. Well, if Tony was anti-politics, why is he flooding the mailboxes of super voters with targeted mailers with his name and picture on them at least twice a month with information that our county mayor, the governor and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are already giving us about COVID-19?

I think it’s important to put color, personal agendas and emotions aside and look at the facts:

In applying to become a Coral Springs police officer, Tony withheld the fact that he had written bad checks when he attended Florida State University He later wrote a letter apologizing after it was detected. That wasn’t racism. That was Tony hiding the truth.

As a Coral Springs police officer, Tony said he wrote policies and procedures that saved lives. But the Coral Springs police chief said Tony never wrote any policies or procedures. That’s not racism. That’s Tony lying and being deceptive. The chief told the Sun Sentinel “if he knew the things he knows now he would have never hired Tony”.

At a Sheriff ’s candidates forum in Coconut Creek earlier this year that I attended, he told the audience that he held the title of commander when he worked at the Coral Springs police department. The police department later refuted Tony’s claims, saying no such position existed.

There is a clear pattern here and it has nothing to do with racism.

As to the murder charges filed against Tony 27 years ago when he was a 14-year-old growing up in North Philadelphia, let’s look at the facts. The Florida Bulldog, which first published the story, reported that there were conflicting accounts of the shooting incident involving an 18-year-old neighbor.

The victim’s girlfriend told the Florida Bulldog that her then-boyfriend was unarmed and that the shooting was prompted by an argument. Tony said he shot the victim in self-defense. He was originally charged as an adult, but prosecutors later moved the case to juvenile court, where he was found not guilty, the Bulldog reported. Yet, Tony never revealed the incident on his law enforcement job applications.

Fast forward to today. We have witnessed firsthand Tony losing his temper as sheriff.

We saw it when he argued with city commissioners last year at a city of Tamarac commission meeting. We saw his bad temper on display again at his April 7 press conference when he announced the suspension of the BSO deputies union president. And his temper and anger were caught on videotape last month when he screamed at deputies outside the hospital where BSO Deputy Shannon Bennett died.

Let’s focus on facts and not forget the fact that Tony lied and deceived his way into becoming a police officer from the start. So are we telling black and brown kids that it’s OK to lie and deceive their way in life to make it?

As an African-American man and as an African-American pastor, I think calling what’s happening to Tony to be racist is a slap in the face to all African-Americans.

Allen B. Jackson is senior pastor of Ark Restoration Church International in Tamarac.