The story of how a small Midwestern town waged war on African-American and Hispanic bar owners to drive them out of the changing town. Pattern or Practice peels the veneer off that shoddy pretense and provides a stark view of what institutionalized racism looks like. Only after a recent lawsuit, Holmes vs the City of Racine has information come to light.
What is the difference now? The difference is the City Leaders of Racine lost $ 4 MILLION in a lawsuit saying “The minority businesses in downtown Racine WI. was the cause of the downtown Racine chaos at bar closing time” Now those minority businesses were closed by the city leaders costing the taxpayers $4 Million Dollars in a lawsuit brought and WON by the minority businesses…….and the chaos continues…………. Was it the minority businesses causing the problem or just racism and poor City leadership?………….NOW WHO ARE THE CITY LEADERS GOING TO BLAME?……
Pattern or Practice peels the veneer off that shoddy pretense and provides a stark view of what institutionalized racism looks like watch video
Was the baseball cap the problem? Was it a white Tee shirt? Bandana? No one under 25? Remove Hennessy Liquor? No HIP HOP music?
All these restrictions were in side agreements that the city of Racine was making minority bars sign to keep their liquor license. But they said that they were not targeting any one group?
BUT WHAT IF:
No sport coats. No Polo’s and Sport Shirts. No Vodka Martinis. No one older than 35. And no Frank Sinatra music. Again would they be targeting any one group?
Depositions in the bar lawsuit Holmes vs City of Racine WI. Depositions include
Mayor City of Racine WI John Dickert
Mayor Dickert’s 2009 Campaign strategist Zak Williams
Downtown Racine Bar Owner Doug Nicholson (Campaign Contributor)
Racine Business Owner Tom Tousis ( Campaign Contributor)
Mayor John Dickert’s Deposition Vol 1
Mayor John Dickert’s Deposition Vol 2
Zak Williams Deposition
Doug Nicholson Deposition
Tom Tousis Deposition vol 1
Tom Tousis vol 2
Mayor John Dickert, ( Cousin) City Administrator Tom Friedel, Attorney Michael Cohen and Alderman Jeff Coe Celebrating after losing over 4 million dollars of taxpayer money. Attorney Michael Cohen should be extremely happy after pocketing 2.7 million in taxpayers money. Jeff Coe chairman of the liquor licensing committee is just happy because someone else is buying.
Chump = a foolish or easily deceived person
Chump Change = a small or insignificant amount of money
If the Racine Chapter of the NAACP as it currently operates ceased to exist tomorrow, what significant effect would it have on black Racine? Gloria how would you answer that question?
When did you and your organization decide to stop representing civil rights?
Did it happen when Thomas Holmes called looking for help in this civil rights lawsuit?
Did it happen when Frazier Funeral Home was denied the purchased of the Women’s Club?
Did it happen when LaShonda Lang called looking for help in her son’ questionable police suicide?
Or did it happen when you found out Racine County has the largest African American prison population in the county?
No, it could have been when Craig Oliver and Michael Shields wrote a report on the civil rights (color of Law) in Downtown Racine and the NAACP would not back them up?
Justice for ALL, not just those City of Racine Officials prefer.
From the Funeral Home that proposed to purchase the former Women’s Club, Ginger Lounge, and the unfair treatment of Thomas Holmes and Park 6, and Rosie’s Bar – a pattern, or practice, if you will, of behavior and treatment has emerged from City Hall that borders on criminal. This Pattern, or Practice has now been revealed, and Racine needs to be investigated – starting at the Mayor’s Office
Preventing abuse of this authority, however, is equally necessary to the health of our nation’s democracy. That’s why it’s a federal crime for anyone acting under “color of law” willfully to deprive or conspire to deprive a person of a right protected by the Constitution or U.S. law. “Color of law” simply means that the person is using authority given to him or her by a local, state, or federal government agency.”
Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization. From the ballot box to the classroom, the thousands of dedicated workers, organizers, leaders and members who make up the NAACP continue to fight for social justice for all Americans.
Asked about how they felt about the NAACP, the men, Deonte Cottingham, 30, and Stephen Harris, 25, both of Racine, said the association lacked visibility.
“I personally feel they should promote themselves, make themselves more available,” said Cottingham, trimming the hair of a young client.
Harris was bit more stinging in his criticism.
“They seem like a Yacht Club now. The real NAACP was when Martin Luther King was around, if you ask me,” he said.
Asked where he would point a young person who wanted to get involved in civil rights work, he said he would have to think about it for a while, but that “it wouldn’t be the NAACP.”
A great story of a small attorney firm believing in a civil rights case and teaming with a national firm to take on racial discrimination and institutionalized racism in a midsize city.
Kohler and Hart Milwaukee investigated the allegations brought by the plaintiffs for over a year. Teaming up with Segal McCambridge Chicago before they filed a complaint.
Early on the bar owners banded together after having their livelihoods taken and hunted for an attorney.
Even going so far as making a pitch on a fundraising site. One plaintiff mortgaged his home for private investigator fees Plaintiffs participated in a documentary to get their story heard. At one point 10 attorneys, paralegals and staff worked on the case. City aldermen were puzzled by how this ragtag bunch of minority businessmen, (that they had literally run out of business), could bankroll such an effort. Over 50 depositions were taken including the Mayor of the City of Racine. Shocking information was revealed which kept the city from going to trial and risking a larger settlement then the 1,3000,000 million settled upon.
Craig Oliver took on an early role in uncovering institutional racism in downtown Racine WI. Oliver authored a report “Sun City, Sister City or Gaza on Lake Michigan. A Report on the State of Racine’s Downtown.” The report was highly regarded as an underground work, even by the Racine NAACP executive board. The report compared downtown Racine to Palestine and South Africa, stating that African Americans were not welcome in downtown Racine, especially after dark. Tonight the Racine City Council will vote on the settlement of Holmes vs City of Racine. Bringing the truth and facts to light.
CRAIG OLIVER, THIS ONE’S FOR YOU
Comments on the Report:
“It’s divisive. It doesn’t deal with what I consider the facts on hand. That’s the problem I have. The city is not involved in segregation or anything like that,” Wahlen said. “The city wants good businesses Downtown and doesn’t care who runs them. I think the city is color blind on all that.”
Calls for comment to Devin Sutherland, executive director of Downtown Racine Corp., were not returned Wednesday.
Emails uncovered in discovery Holmes vs City of Racine
Devin Sutherland’s (“Sutherland”) e-mail stating that non-white establishments on 6th Street had “not added any value to the neighborhood.” (Id. at 6).
. E-mail from Helding stating that the City was “turning into a Detroit.”
. E-mail from RPD officer Rick Geller stating “Alderperson Coe was present both nights and while happy with our efforts, has placed a target on Ginger’s as a result of the last few weekends.”
E-mail from RPD officer David Smetana to Officer Wetzel stating “You may wish to check Park 6 and 2nd Time Around if Gingers is a bust. Happy Hunting,
E-mail from RPD officer David Smetana to RPD Lieutenant Macemon regarding Park 6 stating “[w]e will go ahead with the plan as we spoke of this morning including the nuisance property complaint and going after his cabaret license . . . Plan on proactive foot beats down there for the foreseeable future.”
. E-mail from RPD Lieutenant Macemon regarding The Place on 6th stating “[w]e will see if we can take it to the next level and do some DC arrests or tickets when appropriate.”
Mayor Dickert’s statements thanking the Licensing Committee for “[w]orking very, very diligently on making sure 6th Street is a great place for people to live, shop, work and play.”
Deposition testimony from Penny Sharp that Mayor Dickert said “These niggers need to go back to Waukegan because they are disturbing the revenue here in Racine from the lake, from our vacationers at the lake.
Sutherland’s e-mail stating that “[t]he letter was to make sure the Mayor and others were aware of the current situation on Sixth Street and urge them to step up their assistance.
The Report
Excerpt from Tom Tousis Deposition Holmes vs City of Racine
Dickert about your West Racine project? 2 A No, not before that. 3 Q Did — did he -4 A I really hadn’t talked to John for quite a bit 5 of time before he started soliciting us for 6 money. 7 Q Well, on this particular occasion, the day that 8 you agreed to make a contribution, who brought 9 up the West Racine project? 10 A John did. John was reviewing my prints. 11 Q He was what? 12 A Reviewing the prints. 13 Q How did he obtain the prints? 14 A He asked to see them and when he was asking me 15 if we could do the project without pumps, with 16 no gas, just do grocery and restaurant. 17 Q Okay. 18 A Various questions like that. 19 Q And at this point he had no authority 20 whatsoever over your project. 21 A No. 22 Q Do you know if he was sitting on any 23 committees? 24 A He might have been on the same committee 25 that — he probably was. It was only a few
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1 years after our first project, so… 2 Q Okay. Ultimately how much money did you agree 3 to give him? 4 A Well, I originally wanted to max out, wrote the 5 check from my father and after talking to my 6 father, but John said he was very short and 7 needed to pay for radio and he wasn’t going to 8 win and he was out of money and depleted his 9 own so he asked if we could do twice the 10 amount. 11 Q Okay. 12 A Okay. So — and it was rough, you know, the 13 real amount’s got to be around $1,900 so I just 14 rounded it to, you know, approximately 2,000 15 bucks. 16 Q And did you give him — did you write checks 17 for him? 18 A No. He didn’t want it that way. 19 Q What happened? What did he say? 20 A He said he didn’t have time, because this was 21 days before the election to turn around the 22 money to pay for advertising, so it was either 23 radio or print or both or that he needed to pay 24 for it immediately otherwise he was going to 25 lose.
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1 Q All right. So what did you end up doing? 2 A Giving him — giving him cash. 3 Q How did you give him the cash? 4 A He — he provided a jar with a “John Dickert 5 for Mayor” sticker on the front of it and said 6 to take any contribution, pass to my customers, 7 like leave it on the counter and collect money. 8 That’s the story he was giving me. 9 Q The day that — the day that he asked you to 10 make this contribution how long after that did 11 you receive the jar? 12 A Oh, it was the same day. It was hours 13 following. 14 Q Who brought the jar to you? 15 A John, I think, brought the jar to me. 16 Q Okay. 17 A He had somebody pick it up. 18 Q So the day that you had this conversation, the 19 day he brought you the jar, did you put the jar 20 on the counter for customers to put money into? 21 A No, it never got to the counter. 22 Q Where did you take the money from? 23 A We just took it out of the sales that day. 24 Q How much money did you put in the jar? 25 A It was just short of 2,000 bucks, you know,
Page 69 1 uneven number, so 1,900 something dollars and 2 singles and fives and ten and 20s and mixed up. 3 Q How big was the jar? 4 A It was a mason jar. It wasn’t very big at all. 5 It was like a Ragu container. It wasn’t very 6 big at all. 7 Q You said it was covered with stickers on it? 8 A It was one sticker across the front. 9 Q What was on the -10 A It was taped or it was something taped to the 11 front of it. It was a “John Dickert for Mayor” 12 type of a small banner type of decal. 13 Q Okay. Did you ultimately put cash in the jar? 14 A Correct. 15 Q Then how did you transfer the money back to 16 Dickert? 17 A He sent at the time one of his campaign workers 18 over to pick it up. 19 Q Do you know who the campaign worker was? 20 A Zach Williams. 21 Q Had you met Zach Williams before? 22 A Never. That was the first time we ever met, 23 I’d say. 24 Q Did you meet him in person for
Full Deposition
Homer Blow program director of WNOV 860 Milwaukee WI. and his news show at http://www.blowradio.com Tells the citizen’s of Racine to WAKE UP!.
Click on emails to reference what Homer is speaking about.
pattern or practice 