‘Lady Law’ would frown on Baltimore
You’ve got to wonder what Violet Whyte would think of Vincent Cosom.
In 1937, Whyte became Baltimore’s first black police officer. At first, the 40-year-old married mother of four children was given only a badge and a call box key. But eventually, she obtained full police powers.
Throughout her career, Whyte was part social worker, part cop. She organized holiday drives to collect food and clothing for needy families, most of them black. After she brought down a drug gang by going undercover as an addict, she was called to testify before a U.S. Senate panel that investigated organized crime. During her 30-year career, Whyte rose to the rank of lieutenant and was affectionately known as “Lady Law.”
Cosom — a black officer on what is now a majority non-white police force in a city that is 63% black — is not likely to be remembered so fondly. He became a cop in this city six years ago.
Three months ago, Cosom was caught on a police surveillance camera pummeling 32-year-old Kollin Truss near a bus stop on the city’s east side. At no time did Truss fight back. During a portion of this beat down, a white officer is seen on the video clenching Truss’ right arm but doing nothing to stop Cosom.
Truss was arrested and charged with resisting arrest.
In Cosom’s incident report, ac- cording to Washington, D.C., television station WJLA, he offered this explanation: “At this time I went to place the male under arrest. He got into a fighting stance and clenched his fist. Me and the male got into a physical altercation due to me being in fear of my safety and I received a punch to the body.”
Truss spent three days in jail before the charge was dropped. But it wasn’t until the video of the incident was released last week as part of a $5 million lawsuit that the police department suspended Cosom, with pay.
News of this incident comes as communities as far flung as New York City and Ferguson, Mo., grapple with questionable clashes between white cops and black residents. The video also surfaced about the same time a study was released that cited flaws in the way Baltimore’s police department investigates cops accused of wrongdoing. The remedy, many argue, is for police departments to hire more black officers. Back in 1937, Whyte told The
Evening Sun that her appointment as the city’s first black cop bore a double responsibility. “The first responsibility is to the job — to do it well,” she said. The second, Whyte said, as the first black police officer on the force, was to do nothing that would make the commissioner sorry he had given her the job.
On both those points, I think Whyte, who died in 1980, would agree that Cosom was a poor choice to follow in her footsteps.