Kansas.com: Mark McCormick

Public has an interest in keeping tabs on cops

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:41 CDT

Some of you have called or written, wondering why I continue to dig into the Wichita Police Department's suspension of three officers following a complaint about comments overheard at a party.

First, I can accept the fact that Police Chief Norman Williams can't comment on a current investigation. City employees have due process and privacy rights, too.

But if you think the issue stops there, you're mistaken.

At the heart of my columns last week dwell these concepts: the public's right to know, transparency and accountability to citizens.

These ideas help form the foundation of our republic.

Who gets to pick what public needs to know?

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 01:41 CDT

For more than a week, I have pursued information about what happened at a party that led to the suspension of three police officers.

Along the way, I've learned that this sentiment thrives in our city government: Information vital to the public's interest belongs only to public officials, until they decide otherwise.

That should alarm you.

The department suspended three officers June 13, following a citizen's complaint about sexist and racist banter overheard at a party.

After a week of saying he wouldn't comment on an ongoing investigation, Chief Norman Williams granted me an interview Tuesday night.

Chief Williams addresses rumors

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 01:40 CDT

Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams on Tuesday granted me his first interview since the department suspended three officers June 13 for inappropriate comments at a party.

Since the department suspended the sergeant and two officers, Williams has said he would not comment until the investigation ended.

Friday, I had asked Williams to head off rumors in the community by outlining the process, sharing the actual charges and offering a date when the probe may end.

He declined.

But Tuesday as I worked on a follow-up column, he agreed to address the rumors.

Police chief ought to be open about complaints

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 01:38 CDT

In the week since the Wichita Police Department suspended a sergeant and two officers following a complaint that they made sexually and racially inappropriate comments at a party, we haven't heard a whole lot from you, Chief Norman Williams.

In a written statement, you said the investigation arose from a citizen's complaint about the officers' off-duty conduct. You did not disclose the specific allegations, but you said the department takes such complaints seriously and added that you would not release any information until the end of the investigation.

We shouldn't be talking this early about firing the officers, as the NAACP has called for, but at least we should be talking, Chief.

It is possible to reassure the public that the department won't tolerate sexism and racism, and still respect the officers' due process rights.

What more could you say?

Candidate challenges black vote's status quo

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:42 CDT

You couldn't describe the case for Kenya Cox, a black woman running as a Republican in what has been considered a safely African-American Democratic

seat in the state Senate, as open and shut.

To many of her would-be constituents, the dearly departed George Carlin's list of seven dirty words includes one other: Republican.

Don't mistake this for an endorsement: She shouldn't be so quickly dismissed. She emphasizes a return to traditional values and the practicality of having representation wherever decision-making takes place.

Cox, 43, seeks the 29th District seat Don Betts vacated to challenge Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, for Tiahrt's 4th Congressional District seat. The 29th covers, roughly, an area from Lincoln to 37th Street North and from Main to Woodlawn.

District's public files ought not cost $1,000

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 01:40 CDT

Wichitans for Effective Education, a citizens group that opposes the proposed $350 million school bond issue, gets a lot wrong in discussions about education.

Lionel D. Alford Jr., for example, is such a close observer of the Wichita school board that in an e-mail to me he didn't know whether the bearded Lynn Rogers was a man or a woman. "I've never met the person in my life. My bad," Alford said.

Bob Weeks told The Eagle editorial board this week that he doesn't remember if he voted for the last bond issue.

But they're right in asking that the district honor their Kansas Open Record Act request at a reasonable cost.

The district said it could provide what the group seeks, but at a cost of $1,000.

For Kline, DA election is all about the crusade

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:38 CDT

Phill Kline's filing for the Johnson County district attorney's job last week may not make sense to you.

Why would someone who soundly lost the Attorney General's Office two years ago come back so soon?

Why did he file after giants of the Kansas Republican establishment -- Pat Roberts, Sam Brownback and Nancy Kassebaum Baker -- endorsed his opponent?

Why would he think he has any shot when he only narrowly made it into the Johnson County DA spot two years ago?

It makes more sense, though, if you remember Kline as the man staring from a stark, black-and-white photo in Gentleman's Quarterly magazine years ago under the words, "This man will do anything to stop abortion."

Taxpayer watchdog seems to target city

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 01:39 CDT

Valley Center voters approved a $57.5 million school bond issue last week to build a $40 million high school and renovate existing schools.

With 1,917 ballots cast, the vote was 1,043 to 852. It marked the end of a relatively quiet campaign.

Karl Peterjohn, a fixture of local bond issue battles, was nowhere to be seen.

Strange.

Peterjohn has been an outspoken opponent of the proposed $350 million Wichita school bond issue. He has called and e-mailed me about sitting down with bond opponents to discuss why it is not needed. I support the bond issue.

Death penalty too inconsistent to be fair

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 01:39 CDT

Ted Burnett sat behind 14-year-old Chelsea Brooks in a car that was taking her to the end of her brief life.

After the car stopped in a secluded area, Burnett looped a stereo cord around the girl's neck, put his foot on the back of her seat for leverage, wound the cord in his fists and pulled.

It may have taken Chelsea as long as 4 minutes to die as she clawed at the cord for her life, according to testimony from Burnett's trial.

The now 51-year-old Burnett killed Chelsea and her unborn baby, Alexa, and wounded the conscience of anyone who wants to believe we live in a fair and just world.

Still, two members of a Sedgwick County jury decided last month that Burnett should not die.

At times, numbers can change lives

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 01:38 CDT

Sometimes, it feels as though our lives amount only to numbers.

Our age. Were you born with the Great Depression's values of frugality, or with contemporary America's consumerism? Our credit score or our address. Are you well-heeled or do you need new ones?

Our IQ.

Numbers seem like such a superficial prism for seeing other people.

But had you attended Friday's drug court graduation ceremony in Judge Jennifer Jones' municipal courtroom, you might have heard one incredible number that hung in the air the entire ceremony.

Praise for the good works of Brooks

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 01:41 CDT

Now that Wichita School Superintendent Winston Brooks has safely gone, let us praise him.

Build monuments, as poet Carl Wendell Hines Jr. once wrote, to his glory.

Sing hosannas to his name.

Departed leaders make such convenient heroes. They won't return to challenge images we fashion from their tenures.

And besides, it's easier to sing Brooks' praises than to linger on his flaws.

Wichitans helping Haitians

Wed, 28 May 2008 01:38 CDT

It is as though Haitian people live in a narrow room, backs to the walls just beyond the heat and flames of an economic fire.

And with each surge in food or fuel prices, the fire grows and the space where people scratch out a living narrows.

But ASAP Haiti, a Wichita-based project sponsored by Inter-Faith Ministries, has been busy improving life and expanding the possibilities for people in Lambert, Haiti.

ASAP Haiti has established a kindergarten, secondary and vocational school, and recruited Kansans who sponsor children's education. And much more.

The 20-year project, begun 12 years ago, focuses only on Lambert.

Kids need to learn to deal with difficulties

Sun, 25 May 2008 01:39 CDT

I covered a spelling bee years ago and watched each kid who misspelled a word stomp off the stage in what could only be described as a string of pitiful displays.

The extreme reactions prompted a huge debate between the organizers and the community about whether the competition taught the wrong lessons for life. Whether the stress of the event was unhealthy. Whether losing left wounds that the pride of participation couldn't close.

I'm glad the organization reconsidered and kept the spelling bee going.

We're all hardwired for a protection instinct when it comes to our children.

But as kids grow into adults, and spelling bees morph into the more serious fare of college entrance exams and job interviews, the competition, disappointment and stress don't disappear.

A heartfelt thanks to Morgan's teachers

Wed, 21 May 2008 01:40 CDT

Morgan Fowler struggled so badly with math that she'd stopped handing in assignments. But her seventh-grade math teacher at Wilbur Middle School intervened, and the 14-year-old recently scored the highest pre-algebra test grade in her newschool.

Morgan wouldn't have had the courage to belt out a solo at a spring concert this year, either, if not for her Wilbur music theater teacher.

Morgan lives in Oklahoma this school year, and her dad Curtis -- a retired Wichita teacher -- has been trying since October to get an appointment with her former math teacher, Esther Lutes, and music theater teacher, Amy Brown, for he and Morgan to say thank you.

They asked permission in October, but when they got there, they were told it would be a "distraction," even if they waited. They tried again earlier this month, too.

Morgan finally got her appointment -- set for Friday -- after I called a district official to ask what was going on.

WSU sets first Parks lecture for October

Sun, 18 May 2008 01:40 CDT

Wichita State University will host the first Gordon Parks Lecture on Oct. 6 at the Hughes Metropolitan Complex in what should be a busy year.

Ted Ayres, WSU's vice president and general counsel, said the event's working title is "Gordon Parks and His Influence on American Film."

WSU has commitments from Kevin Willmott, head of the film studies program at the University of Kansas, as moderator; Kurt Baker, a movie and television pioneer who worked with Parks; Parks' son, David Parks; and Dan Glickman, former congressman and secretary of agriculture and current president of the Motion Picture Association of America.

"With each step and every success, I feel that much closer to Mr. Parks and his wonderful life and legacy," Ayres said.

And that's just the beginning.

Let's revisit local safe surrender programs

Wed, 14 May 2008 01:41 CDT

When police and deputies pound on front doors, only two or three inches of wood or metal separates them from some of society's most dangerous people. People high or drunk. People defending a criminal enterprise. People desperate to stay out of prison.

Law officers will always have to serve warrants. If most departments did nothing but serve warrants, they still couldn't serve them all.

But some departments across the country have created so-called safe surrender programs, which help reduce the strain on an overburdened justice system.

During these multi-day events, fugitives and others sought on warrants can surrender to a corps of volunteer clergy at a church or some other neutral site temporarily transformed into a courthouse.

We should have more of them. They seem to work.

Prostitutes don't need a public shaming

Sun, 11 May 2008 01:38 CDT

About this time last year I asked the Wichita Police Department why it insisted on posting photographs of sex workers on its prostitution Web site along with those of sex-trade customers.

Deputy Chief Robert Lee said then that posting the women's photos was about punishing both parties in these transactions. It's also about, he said, the blight on neighborhoods. The drug activity. The violent crime.

Some time next month, Lee said, police will evaluate the effectiveness of the year-old prostitution Web site.

I'm hoping the department decides to do the right thing and take down the women's photos. Not because the women shouldn't be punished, but because posting their photos isn't a deterrent.

Our Police Department shouldn't be placing women in virtual stockades in the Internet square, especially when the department does such good work through Project Butterfly, its program that helps women escape the sex trade.

Wichitan's award from Bush part of larger story

Wed, 07 May 2008 01:37 CDT

You might have missed the real story behind Buddy Shannon's recognition by the White House on Sunday.

The real story of Real Men, Real Heroes, the organization that Shannon was representing that day. The story of the 31 other men also recognized by President Bush through Shannon, a landscape manager for Tree Top Nursery. The story of the woman who created the organization. The philanthropist whose questions inspired it.

It's understandable. We don't always have time for the book in this era of blogs, but this is a story worth telling.

It begins with Barry Downing, the local businessman who with his wife, Paula, has been the muscle, mind and money behind multiple local projects including the Opportunity Project, the Downing Concert Series and the hiring of a reformed felon now working full-time and full-tilt countering the influence of gangs here.

Downing has been concerned about the plight of black boys and sent an e-mail to one of his employees in December 2006, asking for the development of a program to benefit black boys.

What's behind rise in rape in Wichita?

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 01:37 CDT

In their trips to hospitals to comfort rape victims, volunteers at the Wichita Area Sexual Assault Center have seen victims as young as several months and as old as 101.

The majority of the victims, said center executive director Kathy Williams, fall between 12 and 30.

"Did you say 12?" I asked during a recent phone interview. "A 12-year-old victim isn't uncommon?"

"No," Williams said. "And we aren't talking about two kids exploring sex. We're talking about violent behavior. There have always been child victims. Always."

For the third straight year, rapes are up in Wichita, but no single reason explains the spike. Are predators committing more rapes? Or are victim survivors, as Williams calls them, feeling more comfortable reporting?

Who's really on trial in stabbing?

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 01:42 CDT

Wichita police said the convenience store's security video showed 27-year-old LaShonda Calloway struggle to her feet and collapse three times without anyone helping her.

It showed no fewer than five patrons step over her after she'd been stabbed.

It showed one patron pause and photograph Calloway with a cell phone.

It showed that people in the store waited two minutes to call for help.

Jury selection begins Monday for the trial of 20-year-old Cherish McCullough, accused in the June 23 stabbing, said Georgia Cole, communications director for the Sedgwick County District Attorney's Office.