Abstract

Black vs. White in the Station House

This article presents a news item regarding a meeting of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the head of the city's Polish Officers' Association (POA), concerning the decision of internal mobility of officers and wage increments. It reports that the board handed a booklet, named "The Black Book" to each supervisor. In the introductory note of this booklet Jake W. Ehrlich, chief counsel for the POA, charged that a rival black association, the Officers for Justice (OFJ), was racist and contributing to the "destruction of law and order." The occasion for the book was a referendum which the OFJ had submitted to the Board of Supervisors which was aimed to increase the wages and promotions of every policeman and fireman in the city, while this referendum has strengthened the department's efforts to reach the disenfranchised.