Sixth in a series
Re “Recalling Bradley’s School Days”
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Mr. Bradley shakes hands with a fan. Photo, John Youngblood.
Dateline Compton – Omar Bradley, the former and/or next mayor of Compton – Tuesday is the runoff – is an imposing figure, whether speaking softly or normally. He conveys command. He is in charge, but with persuasion rather than force.
Confident in a commanding way, he is at the wheel. Not in the passenger seat.
He handles his lexicon the way an athlete coaxes his ball to travel its prescribed path to its desired destination.
Thousands of other candidates for mayor across America consult their spouses, their children, their advisors when pondering whether to contend for office.
Hardly the case with Mr. Bradley.
“Remember,” he says of the runoff, having deftly survived the first round of 12 contenders six weeks ago, “this really is not for me. This is for the future.”
When and why did Mr. Bradley decide to compete again for the mayor’s chair, having held it for 2½ terms, starting 21 years ago?
“In late December, I got a phone call saying there was a warrant out for my arrest. To wit, I asked why.
“When I contacted the courthouse to find an attorney, I was told there was a bail hearing. Because I was out on bail (since 2004 on the original corruption conviction later reversed), I assumed they were going to exonerate me. I was going to move forward with my life.”
Scene shifts to a courtroom.
“The prosecutor said to me, ‘At a new hearing, we intend on charging you with the old crimes.’
“I said, ‘If you haven’t charged me (yet?), why is there a warrant?’ He said, ‘It is not a warrant.’ I said, ‘Then why am I here?’
“He said, ‘We don’t want you to run for office.’
“I said, ‘I am not running for office.’
“He said, ‘We want you to take a misdemeanor, and this will make sure you never can run again.’”
What does Mr. Bradley believe motivated the prosecutor to insert and assert himself?
“I think there is an economic agenda here. And it has been in place for some time. It is an economic decision, I believe, because I have not castigated the District Attorney’s office for having given the jury the wrong instructions – the jury instructions by the judge. They left out the element of mensrea (intent – that must be proven). This has been a part of Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence for 140 years. How did it get left out of my trial?
“I am not saying, ‘Oh, boy, I beat you.’ ‘Cause humility dictates that if they made a mistake, I forgive them, no matter what it costs me.
“And so if you tell me you want me to accept a misdemeanor that would prohibit me from running, now you are dealing with sensibilities that have nothing to do with me. They have to do with posterity. This has to do with the next kid you don’t like, for whatever reason, and you say, ‘Accept a misdemeanor or we are going to give you a felony.’
“There is something unjust, something not right, about that.
“So after that happened, and I repeatedly said I am not running, I will sign a document to say I am not running, I am not going to accept a misdemeanor for a charge you already have been told that the process through which you got a conviction was wrong. I won’t accept that.”
Mr. Bradley’s face immediately brightened like the earliest morning sunrise.
“I walked right out of there, right out of that courtroom, I went right to City Hall and I signed up to run. I did it because I want my grandson to live in a country where prosecutors don’t determine who is going to win, based upon their ability to prosecute somebody.”
(To be continued)
