Editorial Cartoon in Pittsburgh Paper About Vicious Beating of Black Teen by Three Officers Draws Ire

Rob Rogers' editorial cartoon in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette suggesting beating of Jordan Miles by three police officers was racially motivated, sparks outrage.

Rob Rogers, the editorial cartoonist of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has come under fire with a comic strip that suggests the beating of a local black teenager, Jordan Miles, on January 12 by police officers was racially motivated. The cartoon, published on February 3 offered a dialogue between a diner patron and a waitress over the events of the beating the young man took by three white plainclothes police officers.  Miles, 18, suffered facial bruises, swollen eyes and hair was torn from his scalp after being arrested on aggravated assault charges. The police said they suspected him of having a gun, but it turned out to be a bottle of Mountain Dew soda.

In his cartoon, Rogers suggested the three officers, who have been identified as Richard Ewing, Michael Saldutti and David Sisak, accused of this unspeakable act got their training from "The Racist Skinhead Etiquette Handbook." That ruffled the feathers of Dan O'Hara, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police, who claimed the cartoon paints the entire police department as racists.

In defense of his cartoon, Rob Rogers told Editor & Publisher, "what I'd been hearing from a lot of people on the street was that it seemed over-the-top for the treatment of somebody, even if he did run. So I thought that asking the question, 'Was it racially motivated?' was fair.

"As a cartoonist it's my job to exaggerate to the degree where you get a gasp," he continued. "And that, to them, was a blanket statement that all police are racist skinheads. That's not what I was saying at all. I wanted to direct some attention to this incident -- isn't this a little over the top?"

What I found disgraceful is that these three officers were not suspended pending the outcome of an investigation right away. They were reassigned from plainclothes to uniform duty. Yes, sent back out on the streets. They were finally suspended, but with pay, nearly three weeks after the incident occurred. Funny how the police seem to always get a pass, while the victim is blamed for doing the wrong thing to draw the ire of the police. Don't get me wrong, not all officers engage in police brutality, but the reality is that not all young black men are up to no good.

Too many innocent black men have been stopped by police and some have been victims of police brutality. The cartoonist is posing a legitimate question and it is regrettable that Dan O'Hara can't seem to understand that police brutality is a real problem that police departments across this country can't seem to eradicate. It is a well known and documented fact that blacks and Latinos are discriminated against more often than not by police officers.