When it comes to race relations in St. Petersburg, it often seems that time stands still. TyRon Lewis is still an unconscionably unlikely martyr; Omali Yeshitela still deigns to speak for more than himself; and the police force is still under the gun in minority neighborhoods.
And until last week, Goliath Davis was still a token fixture around City Hall. The pensioned former police chief had been the senior administrator of community enrichment, whatever that meant. To most folks, it meant being the city’s highest ranking, highest profile African-American.
As such, the least he could have done was to attend the official funerals of the three police officers killed in the line of duty over the last six weeks. Davis, who did manage to attend the service for cop-killer Hydra Lacy, managed to do less than the least. Even though he was ordered by Mayor Bill Foster to make sure he attended the service for the third slain officer, David Crawford.
So Foster fired him from his $153,000-a-year job. It was likely a final-straw rationale, but it was a direct, zero-sum order, the defiance of which forced Foster’s hand. And it begs two questions: You’re a former police chief and the city’s racial tinderbox is heating up again and you don’t go to Ofc. Crawford’s funeral? Even more noteworthy: You have to be ordered by the mayor to attend? Doesn’t the embrace of diversity go both ways?
Then you call a press conference on the way out. It’s a veritable going-away salute and racial pep rally, but Goliath is no David the underdog. Especially when Yeshitela is one of your speakers calling for “power to the people.”
Talk about a time warp.