Greenport’s First Black Fire Chief Lifts Hopes
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WHEN they march down Front Street here, something in the faces of the volunteer firemen tells of resistance to change and deep attachment to tradition. But tomorrow, when the 180-member Greenport volunteer force, clad in deep blue uniforms that would not have been out of place a century or more ago, steps off for the village’s Memorial Day parade, there will be something very new. For the first time since the nearly all-white department was founded in 1845, the fire chief marching in front will be black. ”I will be leading my men,” said Thomas R. Watkins Sr., who was officially installed as chief last week after winning a secret-ballot election. ”It’s something I’ve been waiting to do for a long time.” Mr. Watkins, 48, a lifelong resident of Greenport and a firefighter since 1984, becomes one of only a handful of black chiefs ever to lead a Long Island volunteer fire department. For Greenport, an old whaling village of 2,000 recently rocked by allegations of a racial attack involving white police officers and a black victim, the emergence of Mr. Watkins as chief shows another face to the world. ”This is a proud moment for Greenport,” said Mayor David Kapell. ”Racial relations in Greenport historically have been good. It’s one of the reasons people come here.” Barry E. Latney, who grew up with Mr. Watkins, said his election as chief was ”not only good for the black community but for the whole community.” ”It will be great that Tom is leading the parade,” said Mr. Latney, a leader in Greenport’s black community of about 300 residents and treasurer of the North Fork Housing Alliance. ”He’s a role model for everybody. He shows that with hard work you can get to the top.” Mr. Latney and others said they were also relieved that a more positive event was counterbalancing the still unresolved charges involving police conduct. In December, another lifelong black resident of the village, John Mimms, filed a complaint saying he had been severely beaten by a white police officer. The charge involved an incident on Dec. 2 in which officers of the Southold Town police department, which patrols Greenport, stopped Mr. Mimms on suspicion of driving a stolen car. According to Mr. Mimms, one of the officers, Steven Zuhoski, dragged him from the car, struck him with a flashlight while using racial epithets and held a gun to his head while threatening to kill him. The incident, and a second one in which Mr. Mimms claims he was beaten again when officers came to his house around midnight on Dec. 16 to arrest him on drug possession charges, remains under investigation by the Southold police department and the Suffolk County District Attorney, authorities said last week. The police chief, Joseph Conway, said last week that Officer Zuhoski, who has not commented on the charges, remains on regular duty. The police said the second incident occurred after lab tests showed that a substance Mr. Mimms was carrying when he was stopped on Dec. 2 was crack cocaine. A spokesman for the district attorney’s office, Christopher A. Williams, said last week that stolen car and felony drug possession charges against Mr. Mimms had been reduced to unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, a misdemeanor, and misdemeanor drug possession charges. He said a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest remained. Mr. Mimms said he was driving a friend’s car, and has denied having drugs. Chief Conway said his department was ”working with the district attorney’s office” on an internal investigation he ordered in January. Mr. Williams declined to comment on whether the district attorney’s office was involved, but said: ”We take all those allegations very seriously.” ”It may well be that the prosecution and trial of the case will provide answers to the allegation as raised by the defendant,” Mr. Williams said. Gary E. Ireland, the lawyer representing Mr. Mimms in his complaint to the department, has appealed to Governor George E. Pataki and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York to intervene. More : query.nytimes.com |