Some Kind Of Hero - Chris "Preach" Smith

It says a lot about us when we can’t even let heroes be heroes.

It’s been three days since Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight
were rescued from the basement of Ariel Castro and his two brothers, Onil
and Pedro. They, along with Berry’s 6 year old child were freed from a decade
of imprisonment, torture and forced rape after being kidnapped from their
homes blocks away in Cleveland, Ohio. And the main facilitator in their escape
was Charles Ramsey, a neighbor who helped Berry call 911 and kicked in the
front door once police arrived. Ramsey has become a national figure, but now
he is being written out of the narrative. Forced out, if you will. And now, he’s
even dealing with his prior ciriminal record for domestic abuse being exposed
to the public. And why is that?

The answer lies in an intersection of race, socio-economic issues, and perception.
Part of the disbelief about this story is that these women were being held captive
for so long only a few miles from their own homes. The neighborhood is made
up of working class Latino people mostly. So we’re talking about regular, poor
folk. It’s been reported that there were multiple calls made to the Cleveland
police after suspicious sightings at the Castro house, one of which included a
naked woman crawling in the backyard in chains. One resident of the block
has gone on record as saying that his sister saw something, which prompted
him to call the cops. The cops showed up, banged on the door 20 times, then
left. Granted, they had no warrant to enter the premises, but wouldn’t there
be a return visit or eyes kept on the house with multiple reports? It’s plain to
see that there was shoddy police work here. It’s plain to see that some cops
didn’t give a damn about these women; Michelle Knight was basically given
up on by them. Her mother kept searching on her own. I actually caught an
interview with an alderman for the neighborhood who went on to speak about
the city’s ‘re-appraisal’ of homes in the community and how they missed
reviewing the home because it was next to commercial property. It left me
stunned. Here was a city official basically implying that the Castro house,
because it wasn’t of sale value to the city, wasn’t worth them looking into.
Negligence. Add to that the fact that the department is still dealing with a
horrifying incident where a Black couple was killed by being shot 137 TIMES
by officers after a traffic stop December of last year and it’s no wonder that
the Justice Department has set up a bigger camp there. The police felt that
multiple phone calls based on suspicious behavior didn’t warrant further 
exploration of a house in a poor neighborhood. And this may be happening
again somewhere else. (Further proof of them covering their tracks is not
charging his brothers to date based on them seeming not to be involved
even though they shared the house!!!) In a city dogged by hard economic
times, tensions between the police & people of color, this case shines a hard
light on Cleveland’s worst. And Charles Ramsey wound up as the spokesman
for Cleveland’s best.

As for Mr.Ramsey, his rise to fame is notable because of his interviews. Never
mind the unkempt process, or how his eyes looked. I’ve seen the memes
comparing him to Sho’Nuff from ‘The Last Dragon’ or putting his face on
McRib ads. This has been done before from Antoine Dodson to Sweet Brown.
But what is different with Charles Ramsey lies in this statement: ‘I knew
something was wrong when a pretty white girl runs into a Black man’s
arms.” In that funny statement, lies sad truths about where this country is. 
Ramsey’s criminal history was then outed by The Smoking Gun a day after
he did an interview with Anderson Cooper of CNN, an interview where he
expressed that he didn’t want the reward money. Charles Ramsey was a
prism the media didn’t want you to see the story through. He was too much
the everyday man, too much the slice of true Americana that gets in the
way of crazed reality shows and pill-popping celebs. His goodness flies in
the face of the onset of the crass commercialization that’s about to set
in with this case. Because you know that there’s going to be a movie, a
run on the talk-show circuits, and books. You already have Rush Limbaugh
alleging that the women will go on welfare supported by President Obama
12 HOURS after their rescue. Repackaging tragedy as easy entertainment
is a science in this society. And Charles Ramsey’s truth of what he did and
who he is gets in the way of that. It’s a shame that he has to now be 
whitewashed out of this story. We only want shining, perfect examples
that hold up under bright lights and phony smiles. Some kind of hero
that would be…

It’s a shame because this will only tell people, ‘hey, don’t help each other
out if your past is checkered.’ Or ‘you can’t change who you are, or rise
above it.’ And don’t we need that now, more than ever in this country? 
So tip your hat to Charles Ramsey. And hope that there will be more who
will do the right thing when called to action.