My reply to WFMY

My reply to WFMY's comments on faking the black book.

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Dear Ms. Hooper,

Thank you for the reply. I searched your web site for "black book" and am unable to find any text or video reporting the clarification.

While I am sure the implications of misrepresenting the binder are clear to you, for Mr. Lougee's benefit, I'll explain.

1. The real binder has been withheld from public inspection. Were WFMY to have seen it, it would raise questions about access under public records law.

2. To have had access to the real binder and not describe what was in it would have raised serious doubts about WFMY's investigative rigor.

3. Unsubstantiated accusations sprang up in Greensboro about a "black book" containing the photos of black police officers and illegitimately used to try to implicate them in wrong-doing. While numerous external and internal investigations failed to identify such a book, another black binder was identified and has come to be called the "black book" -- it has become a stand-in for the mythological black book never found to exist. The real binder is a legitimate case book, a fact attested to in a sworn affidavit by the former Greensboro city manager -- a matter of public record unreported by WFMY.

To display a binder thick with material and making it appear as the "black book," as WFMY did, is a visual misrepresentation in support of an urban legend instead of the reality that the binder contained photos of nineteen officers compiled into a photo line-up with 114 total pictures -- officers who were on duty at the time of an alleged assault on a female by, as the victim alleged, a black police officer.

I am pleased to hear that you will continue to report on this story. Perhaps in the future you will take an interest in aligning your reports with the facts, instead of using stagecraft to unnecessarily foment divisiveness in our community.

Cordially,
Roch Smith, Jr.