Black youth Archives - MICHAEL O. ALLEN

SPECTATOR SEATS AREN’T ALL NEEDED BUT PRESS OVERFLOWS COURTROOM

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, January 16, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A11

Although spectators started gathering outside the Bergen County Courthouse about 7 a.m. on Wednesday, several of the 53 seats set aside for the public went begging on the day of opening arguments in Gary S. Spath’s reckless manslaughter trial.

The spectators who lined up before a double-glass door leading to the first-floor courtroom were waved in 10 at a time by Sheriff’s Officer George Kellinger shortly before the 9 a.m. start of the trial.

The initial seating included 39 spectators, plus six representatives of families of Spath and Phillip C. Pannell, as well as members of the press. Only 31 spectators attended in the afternoon.

Everyone entering the courtoom was frisked, sent through a walk-through metal detector, and then reinspected with a hand-held metal detector. Bergen County Undersheriff Jay Alpert attributed the tight security to anticipation of heavy demand for seats and the number of witnesses expected to testify at the trial.

All of the 19 seats set aside for the press were taken, and a special media room was set up on the second floor to handle the overflow. Nearly a score of reporters, cameramen, and technicians crammed into the 12-foot-square room to stare intently at two television monitors tuned to coverage of the trial provided by Court TV, a cable network. Space was so tight many sat cross-legged on the floor.

Several of the spectators including Beverly Lefkowitz, president of the Teaneck Parent-Teacher Association said they were drawn to the trial because they had closely followed the case since Spath shot Pannell in April 1990.

“The case reflects a lot of turmoil in the town that many of us are trying to address,” she said.

Lloyd Riddick, 57, a retired Teaneck resident, said he was attending to show support for the Pannells.

“Something happened to a friend of mine, an African-American, and I see the way the system is leaning. So, if my appearance here evens the scales of justice a little bit, then I’ll do so. Anything I can do to help,” he said.

Caption: PHOTO – AL PAGLIONE / THE RECORD – The trial of Teaneck police Officer Gary S. Spath getting under way in a Hackensack courtroom Wednesday morning.

Notes: MAIN STORY FILED SEPARATELY – OPENING ARGUMENTS FOCUS ON ISSUE OF PANNELL’S GUN. DID SPATH KNOW OF WEAPON? THE SPATH TRIAL – Page a01

January 16, 1992

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FOR BLACK YOUTHS, AN UNEASY START

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

by Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, October 27, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

Toward the end of his workshop Saturday, the Rev. Clarence L. James Sr. asked boys in the front pew at Mount Olive Baptist Church in Hackensack what it takes to be a man on the street.

Sell drugs, someone said. Kill somebody, another said. Beat your woman, replied another boy. And on and on: Fight to get respect, have many women, rape someone, gamble, have a gun, pimp.

The street is one of the primary institutions where black males are initiated into manhood, said James, a Baptist minister and evangelist from Atlanta who has been conducting a weeklong revival at Mount Olive Baptist Church that addresses the issues facing the black family. The other institutions he named were prison, military service, and college.

He scrunched his face in mock disgust and winced with each reply.

“That is not the kind of man we need,” James said. “We need husbands for our daughters, fathers for our children, a provider.”

The audience consisted of 100 males, including 50 boys from Hackensack, Englewood, Teaneck, Westwood, Rutherford, and Paterson. James discussed the role of black men during slavery, black men and education, black men and the military, and black men in the family.

The Rev. Gregory J. Jackson, pastor of Mount Olive Baptist Church, said the workshop was an important part of the church’s yearlong celebration of the black family.

“The idea is that we are losing too many of our boys and men to jail, drugs, alcoholism, crime, et cetera,” he said. “We need to develop ways for saving our boys . . . find ways that we can help lost boys make a transition from adolescence to manhood.

“Many of these boys have fathers who are dead or in jail. They are our kids. We’ve got to help the kids grow up as men. You can’t just leave them out there for the world to raise. ”

James said part of their rites of passage into manhood must include educating them about their African heritage and instilling pride in that heritage.

The street, prisons, the service, and colleges have failed the black man because they have failed the black man and his family, James said. He cited the church as an institution where God-fearing Christians can help turn black boys into moral, upstanding men.

Samuel E. Adams, 35, of Englewood said the workshop is a godsend to the black community and that it should be done weekly.

“We first must be taught who we are to love ourselves,” he said. “With this knowledge we are gaining, we must take care of our own. We will never gain respect as a people until we start owning and controlling our community and our resources. ”

Caption: PHOTO – ROBERT S. TOWNSEND / THE RECORD – Youths and their elders joining in prayer at Hackensack’s Mount Olive Baptist Church.

October 27, 1991

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