Tim Russert and Michael Stewart

Sen. Barack Obama will give his acceptance speech to the Democratic National Convention in Denver, CO on August 28, 2008. This speech will occur forty-five years after the March on Washington. In 1963, organizers chose August 18 because it was the date that Emmett Till had been tortured and murdered in 1955 in Money, MS for allegedly whistling at a white woman.
Interestingly, there was no remembrance in Money, MS by Black leaders fifty years after Emmett’s death. In fact, there had been no plans for a remembrance even though his death ignited the modern Civil Rights Movement. Three months later, Rosa Parks would refuse to stand for a white man and was arrested as though a band was playing the “Star Spangle Banner” at a KKK conclave.
This scenario raised questions about Hurricane Katrina and HAARP. What did Black leaders know and when did they know it? Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on Blacks in New Orleans. Public officials were not sensitive to their plight. It reminded history buffs of President Andrew Jackson’s removal of Indians. Bush 41 spoke to the nation in front of Jackson’s statute in New Orleans. Coincident?
Twenty years after the historic March on Washington, New York had its own Emmett Till. Eleven members of the New York Transit Authority Police Department spotted Michael Stewart kissing a white girl near a Manhattan subway station. This kiss turned back the hand of time to 1783. The police became judge, jury and executioner. He was hog-tied and slipped into a coma from the fatal beating.
1983 was amid a period of racial strife in New York. Law enforcement agencies did not need another headache. The mayor and the Manhattan district attorney’s office needed a cover-up. Chief Medical Examiner Elliot Gross of Connecticut owed them a favor.
His predecessor, Michael Baden, had been removed from office because of Baden’s assessment of the cause of death of VP Nelson Rockefeller. He suggested some hanky panky. Morgenthau despised Baden. Mayor Ed Koch summoned Gross, the Chief Medical Examiner of Connecticut, to replace him.
Gross conveniently ruled that Stewart had died of cardiac arrest. This was a case of mistaken identification, however. Usually, ambulance chasers represent the victim’s family. Throwing a bone to a legal hound will usually put him off track. Hush money will do the trick.
New York City would belatedly discover that Louis Clayton Jones, Michael Warren and myself were no ambulance chasers and hush money was out of the question. Cardiac arrest would mean that Stewart died of natural causes and no need existed for a grand jury investigation.
Of course, we had seen enough to know that a cover-up was afoot. Moreover, Congress had put the NYPD under a microscope. It was time to seek a special prosecutor. Gov. Mario Cuomo could do it in a heartbeat. New York Executive Law permits the governor to appoint a special prosecutor.
Cuomo had his own problem. His son, Andrew, was being trained by Morgenthau to take over the reins of a high-profile position in government. Other members of the class included John F. Kennedy, Jr. and Eliot Spitzer. This is how whites do it. Morgenthau is the master teacher.
Under these circumstances, Cuomo chose to play hardball. Jones had already been a critic of Cuomo for Cuomo’s role in Forest Hills. It did not help that Clayton had described Cuomo as an “Italian peasant” who graduated from St. Johns Law School while Clayton described himself as “African royalty” with a law degree from Yale Law School. The line had been drawn in the sand.
Tim Russert had acquired a reputation as a political operative in defense of Sen. Daniel Patrick Moniyhan who would hit where it hurts. Sen. Gary Hart had praised him for playing political hardball. In hitching up with Cuomo, you can say that birds of a feather flock together. Rev. Al Sharpton referred to Russert as his “brother.” Russert was no teddy bear.
Cuomo installed a scheme to hijack monies earmarked for the poor to build housing in honor of Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. and he, instead, used it to finance the construction of prisons and to continue New York’s design of plastering over the Underground Railroad with prisons. In New York, the color of crime is Black. This scam occurred under Russert’s watch.
In response to the pressure that New York City and New York State were receiving from the estate of Michael Stewart, Morgenthau initiated a criminal prosecution of Maddox on July 11, 1984. If he had been convicted, Maddox would have not only been imprisoned but also automatically disbarred. Russert was counseling Cuomo in 1983 and 1984.
Russert died at his workstation on Friday the 13th. He anchored NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Initially, his cause of death was a massive heart attack. It was changed to cardiac arrest. This is shades of Michael Stewart. Russert has been described as a family man, friend and blue-collar worker who was listened to by all classes and presumably all races on questions of politics. Compare the views of Arianna Huffington.