We not only had to deal with weak recollections due to the passage of time but also faulty or incomplete memories because so many participants had consumed so much alcohol during the Roundup. Regardless of their source, if true, these allegations threatened to seriously undermine the ability of these agents to perform their critical missions, particularly enforcing federal criminal law, upholding civil rights laws, and providing equal protection under the law. During the course of this investigation OIG interviewed over 500 witnesses, including participants in the Roundup, people who were invited but did not attend, vendors to the Roundup, DOJ employees based in Southeastern offices, river raft guides, local Tennessee residents, and others. In addition, a former ATF agent in an interview subsequent to his Senate hearing testimony alleged for the first time that in 1987 he heard from another ATF agent that a woman had been raped by an ATF agent at the Roundup. In 1992, two different signs were displayed at the campground. We hope that our effort to deal fully and carefully with disturbing allegations against officers responsible for enforcing our federal criminal laws will promote the fair administration of justice and the public's confidence in the ability of the Department of Justice to police itself. We conclude that specific disciplinary action is not warranted for the vast majority of DOJ employees who attended the Roundup in one or more years. Instead of promoting someone whose skills and abilities compliment your strengths and fills in your weaknesses you promote Bob. During this 16-year period, only 4 black law enforcement agents ever attempted to attend the Roundup. How to break up the old boys club in your office. 'Good ole boy system': LMPD officer files lawsuit accusing department of bias, discrimination. Performances in the skit competitions included participants who bit off the head of a dead snake; ate a whole raw fish soaked in beer; defecated on stage; soiled their trousers on stage; and pulled chewing tobacco out of their trousers pretending it to be excrement and put it in their mouths. The department was one of nine law enforcement agencies in Michigan to receive such an award in the latest grant cycle. We found no evidence that the invitations to the Roundup, either written or oral, made explicit references or even allusions to racial restrictions on attendance or that racist activities were available or welcome at the event. We conclude that the name "Good O' Boy" was not selected or used with the intent to send a message that the event was racially exclusive. I look around from time to time and never cease to be amazed at how little social progress we have actually made. Most agencies that employ such tactics ultimately end up with a sub-par employee energy level, providing little more to the public they serve than the status quo. All told, our investigation took into account the statements of nearly 900 witnesses, including 560 who attended a Roundup. In 1990 and 1992, "persons whom [OIG] could not identify were checking to determine if any blacks were in any of the cars driving through the campground. Buckingham, M. (2011). For most of the allegations, no physical or documentary evidence was available. We found substantial evidence that strippers performed at the campground year after year beginning around 1988. We found no information to identify who was responsible for this sign. After multiple failed attempts, Satterthwaite was elected as the Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer under then-Deputy Chief Lavita Chavous. Every president and governor names close associates to key cabinet positions. (2014). A related idea is patronage, giving public service jobs to those who may have helped elect the person who has the power of appointment. The day before the Roundup opened a small sign that read, "no niggers," was observed posted on a stake alongside the road into the campground. Thus, DOJ participation in the Roundup was relatively insignificant both numerically and organizationally. Although Hayward alleged that the tape also contained a racist "comedy" routine and was for sale at the campground, we found no corroboration for these additional claims. Our investigative and interviewing strategy was designed to get beyond potentially self-serving accounts. (Subsequently, the FBI concluded that Hayward's video taken at the 1990 Roundup was authentic and had not been altered.). OIG also found insufficient evidence to conclude that a racist sign was displayed in any part of the campground during the 1989 Roundup. In response to this activity and an article Hayward published about the Roundup the following month in the NAAWP Newsletter, in which he claimed that numerous David Duke supporters attended the Roundup, the event's organizers instituted new policies for 1993 prohibiting political and racist activity. "man's job." The "good ole' boy" network is alive and well in some departments. 2023 Copyright Law Enforcement Today - All Rights Reserved. Compounding the frustration is that these small groups of in-players are loyal to each other to the core, even when one of their members is incompetent. Contrary to the media accounts of this incident, the black agents were not turned away from the Roundup. Most people define the Good Ole Boy System as "people who use or gain special treatment with job assignments and promotions because of the relationship they have with others.". This is particularly true in Southern states. OIG received no allegations and found no evidence that any DOJ property was used to support the Roundup. We are disturbed that an event characterized by rampant public drunkenness, widespread public lewdness, and in later years episodes of racist conduct drew participants from DOJ and other law enforcement organizations. LOUISVILLE, Ky. A Louisville Metro Police (LMPD) officer has filed a lawsuit claiming that LMPD is trying to hide bias, discrimination and nepotism in how it promotes officers to specialty assignments. Based on our review of the statements of over 150 attendees at the 1989 Roundup and our credibility determinations regarding the various witnesses, we concluded that no racist sign or effigy was displayed at the registration desk for any portion of the 1989 Roundup and that the claim that ATF agents were "checking cars for niggers," although similar to conduct reported in other years, is unsubstantiated. Findings Regarding Specific Racist Misconduct Even where we developed substantial evidence that acts of misconduct took place, we have not in every case been able to identify who was responsible, despite determined efforts to do so. Over the sixteen years of the Roundup, only three percent of the total estimated number of attendees were DOJ employees. An important part of the climate was established by the availability of unlimited amounts of alcohol. We are disturbed that an event characterized by rampant public drunkenness, widespread public lewdness, and in later years episodes of racist conduct drew participants from DOJ and other law enforcement organizations. First, performance needs to be a centerpiece of promotability factors. This fact contributed substantially to the degeneration of the Roundup over the years from an innocuous open-air camping and recreational gathering into a playground for large numbers of the drunk, tasteless, and immature. He eventually parked his car off to the side, removed the offensive clothing, and was permitted to enter. Organizational expectation is who you know rather than what you do. While we conclude that the organizers did not specifically intend for the Roundup to be a "whites-only" racist gathering, we were able to identify only twenty individual members of minority groups, including four blacks, who ever attended a Roundup. Although high ranking officers and senior enlisted have always tried to pluck toxicity out of the system because it goes against every military value, it still rears its head, typically in the form of the good ol boy system. At the least, they may choose to recuse themselves from votes where social relationships may exert undue influence. a) Racist signs In 1992, T-shirts with a pocket drawn on the upper left of the shirt, a drawing of the head of the character Buckwheat from the old television show "Little Rascals," and the words "Good Ole Boys '92" written on the pocket were offered for sale by some unidentified person or persons. by Bob Adelmann June 23, 2014. Cultural change that sticks.Harvard Business Review. Racist skits were performed in 1990 and 1992. Hayward, who made the videotape with the "checkpoint" sign and who in an affidavit submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee claimed to have witnessed a broad array of racist acts at a number of the Roundups, refused for several months to cooperate with the OIG investigation, submit to an interview, or surrender the original videotape. During this sixteen-year period, more than 1,000 people participated in the Roundup, including an estimated 500 federal, state, and local law enforcement and Department of Justice (DOJ) officials. One of the Senate affiants alleged that during the 1990 Roundup a "drug enforcement officer" offered her some unspecified drugs in Grumpy's, a bar adjacent to the campground that was frequented by many Roundup attendees. Op/Ed: Employment And Crime. 4) provide further training on the role of federal law enforcement officers in our society and the reasons why it is critical for law enforcement personnel to be held to extremely exacting standards of conduct to earn and maintain the full confidence of all citizens. All the latest Law Enforcement Today news, updates and alerts delivered straight to your phone or inbox. A second sign, this one reading, "nigger checkpoint," was reported to have been posted across from the registration area early on the morning the Roundup began. Hayward and his attorney terminated the interview shortly after the questioning turned to Hayward's own white supremacist views and activities. This impacts the department in multiple ways such as: OIG interviewed every DOJ employee, current and past, who attended at least one Roundup, and many of their colleagues and supervisors, with a particular emphasis on minority employees, to determine what they knew about the Roundup. Harvard professor Barbara Kellerman has identified seven types of bad leaders, and by ignoring bad leadership people undermine good leadership (Johnson, 2012). These standards apply to employees' off-duty conduct in addition to their conduct on the job. If we were able to do away with the "club" morale and job satisfaction would greatly increase. Furthermore, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee in public hearings emphasized the need for a comprehensive investigation because the allegations implicated numerous law enforcement agencies in the criminal justice system. . This failure, together with the availability of massive amounts of alcohol, no doubt contributed to the recurrence of such incidents. Time for reform and change. Some minority agents also expressed a reluctance to attend because the Roundup was held in the woods of an all-white county in Eastern Tennessee. Racist signs were posted in at least two years: 1990 and 1992. Ideas are not singular and are often a collaborative process of passing through many people coupled with thousands of thoughts and decisions before becoming final (Catmull, 2014). When he filed a complaint, the lawsuit alleges LMPD command "directed and authorized efforts to intimidate, harrass and surveil" him. Superiors that follow the good ol boy system rarely make an effort to hide their favoritism. In reality, the clothes do not exist, and although swindled, the emperor himself does not admit he cannot see them, because he doesnt want to be seen as unwise. Also, because favoritism is often covert (few elected officials are foolish enough to show open partiality to friends, and family), this practice undercuts the transparency that should be part of governmental hiring and contracting processes. In 1992, a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, police officer competing in the Redneck of the Year contest performed a skit where he claimed to have found a watermelon which had fallen off the back of a passing truck, struck it until it broke open, and then pulled out a doll he had painted black. In addition OIG concluded that the claims of bestiality, sex on Grumpy's stage during the 1995 Roundup, and naked men jumping out of trees onto women passing below were all unsubstantiated. Over the sixteen years of the Roundup, only three percent of the total estimated number of attendees were DOJ employees. Importantly as well, there were not many options given the initial objective of finding a site for an overnight camping and whitewater rafting trip near Rightmyer's duty office in Knoxville. The authors suggest four opportunities to dig an organization out of an insular environment. The 9News Investigators found records of two paychecks made out to Jimmy Jones after his resignation date of April 28, 2015. The assessment center for promotion of police officers: can it be improved? Remarkably, we found no one in attendance who appeared to be offended by such activity or who sought to curb it. You're skipping over experienced and educated applicants for a buddy. Stallard, M. (2007). Once Hayward and Randall's allegations were made public, one former and several current black ATF agents made allegations that the Roundup was a "whites-only" event and that no black agents had ever been invited to attend. ", 4. In some instances these persons cooperated; in others they refused to answer any questions. Both of these individuals are affectionately coddled and protected by at least one magistrate and two sitting U.S. District Court judges on the federal bench for the Northern District of Alabama. Information sharing is chaotic and in-group knows more about organizational agendas than everyone else. However, we found no evidence linking DOJ employees to acts of public drunkenness, public lewdness, or any of the other sordid aspects of the Roundup in any specific or persistent way. Satterthwaite, who has been with the department since 2012, says LMPD has a "clique like nature" that negatively affects morale in the department. And everyone can point to instances where cronyism or nepotism is an accepted fact of life in political sphere, as well. The caption of the photo on the T-shirt read, "Boyz on the Hood." In numerous years, Confederate flags were displayed in various locations in and around the Roundup campground. A future Roundup president and Hayward can be readily identified. The only identifying information we received was that an unspecified person from Ohio and another from Mississippi possessed one of these tapes. A problem arises, however, when a leader decides to sweep an issue under the rug. At least 10 percent of the attendees had federal law enforcement affiliations. Without these examples, the texture of the event could not be adequately communicated. We also conclude that by the time racist conduct began to appear at the Roundup and persons began to attribute racist tendencies to it, the Roundup organizers should have been aware that the name itself may have sent a less-than-welcoming message to all potential attendees. In 2002, a survey from the federal government's Office of Personnel Management found that only 36.1 percent of federal workers thought promotions in their work units were based on merit. Blaming these people for the sins of others would have been unfair. Being a federal law enforcement officer within the Department of Justice is a privilege not a right; it can appropriately be conditioned on maintaining a proper level of behavior at all times. OIG interviewed every DOJ employee, current and past, who attended at least one Roundup, and many of their colleagues and supervisors, with a particular emphasis on minority employees, to determine what they knew about the Roundup. Thus, whether intended or not, the Roundup was in fact predominantly a gathering of whites. The signs were removed and destroyed. In addition to charges of racism, allegations of criminal or other misconduct were also raised. While these practices are intended to strengthen us as a whole and weed out the untrustworthy, it actually does the opposite. Personal written invitations were sent only to those who had previously registered for a Roundup. This is why. They also bring this up in the report, the club the good old boys club. 1. Logan of the University of Kentucky, the lead researcher, noted that the rural women were from the Appalachian area, which has received media attention because of drug use. After the confrontation, "unidentified persons painted the words 'niggers go home' and 'whites only' on toilets in the campground.". In 1995, one current and three retired Fort Lauderdale police officers confronted a white ATF agent who had come to the Roundup with two black law enforcement officers. Nonetheless, OIG expended considerable time, energy, and resources to determine as best we could what happened at the Roundup. We discuss the problem of one of our State Legislators practicing Law privately and representing a subject in a high profile, double murder trial and how it raises questions for citizens, Law Enforcement and Circuit Solicitors Offices. The "good ol' boy" system is when a leader unabashedly chooses favorites among their subordinates. Over time, when you copy an image repeatedly, the pixilation becomes distorted, and over time its not a useful quality image worth printing. (Subsequently, the FBI concluded that Hayward's video taken at the 1990 Roundup was authentic and had not been altered.) As long as theres still a working relationship, rivalries between units are fine. 2. In 1991, officers from the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C. brought to the Roundup shirts that depicted three police officers around a police car and two persons being held face down on the hood of the car. When someone is granted a position because of connections rather than because he or she has the best credentials and experience, the service that person renders to the public may be inferior. Because of the historical connections between similar sites and racist activities, these agents attributed racist intentions to the Roundup due simply to its location. Most people of interracial goodwill have never heard of Gene Rightmyer, the former Knoxville, Tennessee-based ATF agent who organized and led the Good Ol' Boys Roundup (Roundup) from 1980 through 1995. Gritz said that the DOJ and the FBI has more work to do in promoting gender equality and diversity within their ranks. The lawsuit alleges that the department retaliated against Satthertwaite when he filed a complaint about a practice he believed to be unlawful. In the fourth installment of dark leadership that impedes the best in leadership, we will examine the failures of the insular leader and how they negatively impact police organizations. We have referred to the Director of the FBI a report with respect to this one current FBI employee for whom we recommend that punishment be considered for his behavior at the Roundup. This agency, is the worst "law enforcement" agency I've worked for. Poor decisions are made, costing the organization credibility and destroying public confidence.