A quest to calm racial turmoil
Pocomoke City Police Chief William (Bill) Harden Sr., left, was hired after the town’s first black police chief was fired.
The new police chief walks into the Market Street Deli, a gathering spot in a town still scarred by months of racial turmoil.
Most of the diners are white. William (Bill) Harden Sr., who has been on the job for about a month, is black. He pauses at the door, wearing his black uniform with gold buttons and stars and a hat embroidered in gold with the city’s emblem and the word “Chief.”
Harden, 65, knows people in Pocomoke City are still getting to know him — and still getting over what led to him being hired.
The town’s first African-American police chief, Kelvin Sewell, was fired June 29. He alleges it was because he refused to terminate two black officers who had filed discrimination complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) — charges the city denies. Among the incidents alleged: a food stamp superimposed with U.S. President Barack Obama’s face that was left on a black detective’s desk and a text message sent that read, “What is ya body count n---a?”
After Sewell was fired by the city council and mayor, hundreds of residents demanded that he be reinstated. The town of 4,000 split largely along racial lines.
Part of Harden’s job will be to bring calm back to Pocomoke, which bills itself as “The Friendliest Town on the Eastern Shore,” and its police department, which employs seven white officers and seven black officers.
“I know there are still citizens here who feel Chief Sewell was their guy. I get that. I don’t take any issue with that and I respect that and that is it,” Harden says.
The sideways glances. The news stories about Pocomoke. None of that bothers Harden, who spent 25 years with the Maryland State Police, many of them working undercover. Much of that time was in Baltimore, where he made drug busts and took down corrupt cops.
The Market Street Deli, where the night’s specials are fried hotdogs with baked beans or veal cutlet with green beans, is a world away from Baltimore.
The hostess greets Harden and Ernest A. Crofoot, the city’s new attorney and city manager. Harden, tall and thin with blue-gray eyes and a grey moustache, surveys the dining room. He greets an elderly white couple seated at a round table. “I’m Bill Harden, the new chief.” “So you’re the new chief,” says Jim Butler, who says he thinks he is 87. He turns to his wife to confirm his age. Margaret Butler says she has stopped counting. “I think you are 88,” Jim tells Margaret. “Eighty-seven is fine with me,” she says. “So you are the new chief?” repeats Jim Butler, who worked as a manager at a chicken company before retiring.
“Yes, I am,” Harden says. “Call me anytime.”