Tom Hanson: Consultant for city mum in other role for NAACP

Willie Green is normally proud of the NAACP. He calls it "the largest, the most powerful, the baddest, the toughest, the oldest civil rights organization in the world."

Green, a past local president of the group, says the NAACP he knows wouldn't stand for the recent actions by some Fort Myers city employees. Carletha Griffin, the current president of the Lee County NAACP, is mysteriously silent as controversy regarding alleged police brutality and a demand for public records has been brewing.

Griffin hasn't been powerful. She has been far from tough. But Griffin might be considered "the baddest" in an issue that escalated to the point that a city deputy clerk told some Dunbar community leaders to "kiss" her behind last week.

Griffin is the root of the evil. She's a paid consultant for the Fort Myers Police Department and it has caused a conflict with her National Association for the Advancement of Colored People responsibilities.

"She wants to run with the rabbits and bark with the dogs," Green said. "You have to be either a rabbit or a dog. You can't be a rabbit and a dog."

Now community leaders are barking for Griffin's resignation.

"The NAACP is not going in the same direction that we are going in," said James Muwakkil, stating that the NAACP at the national level has instructed its chapters to be actively involved in fighting police misconduct. "We don't have a problem with her job. Everyone needs to work. But we have a problem with her taking a job and not being able to effectively handle her duties of being the president of the NAACP."

Griffin said she will not resign. She doesn't consider her consultant job with the city to be a conflict. "They've been wanting me out of here since I started," said Griffin, who has been in office for five years.

The group held a news conference Friday at Fort Myers City Hall to ask state Attorney General Charlie Crist to investigate the city for possible inappropriate actions. Members reiterated their stance of wanting Denise Yingling, the deputy city clerk who disrespected them last week, to be fired. The city hasn't ruled on Yingling, who has been suspended with pay.

"I cannot sugar-coat it. She needs to be fired," Green said of Yingling. "There are people cutting grass that couldn't say that to a person. The man who is reading my water meter couldn't say that to me and keep his job."

And if Yingling isn't fired Green says the NAACP should picket city hall. But he feels Griffin will never do that because of her conflict.

Griffin took the position as a diversity consultant for the police department Feb. 1. It's the same position she once held before being dismissed. It's the same job that she also held at the county level before being dismissed. Pastor Michael Barnes said the timing of Griffin's hiring, which occurred at the same time that the group filed a complaint about the police department with the U.S. Justice Department, is questionable.

Barnes also blames the American Civil Liberties Union and the state attorney's office for not acting. Green points to the lack of action from the local NAACP for the others' silence.

"If I leave my oldest son to watch the house and he doesn't take care of it, I can't come along and fault the youngest son," Green said. "The NAACP should be in the forefront. We are taught to be in the forefront."

Sadly, Griffin remains in the background of this controversy.