Just after finishing an interview with Inside Tennis outside the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York in September, 2015, African-American tennis star James Blake was bum-rushed by a white policeman, James Frascatore. Dressed in plain clothes, Frascatore fiercely threw Blake down to the concrete sidewalk. The takedown was recorded by cameras and New York’s Mayor and Police Commissioner eventually apologized.
Critics claimed this was hardly the first incident of an excessive reaction by New York police. They noted that even star athletes are attacked. Blake’s mother Betty was incensed and she wrote an outspoken article for the New York Daily News that asserted the incident was racial.
Recently Betty Blake told Inside Tennis that “so many cases came out where Frascatore had punched and abused people, and mostly they were black – that’s what he does. That guy should not be on the street with a gun, because he’ll only do the same thing again. I feel very strongly about guns, and Tom, my late husband, wouldn’t even allow our kids to have water pistols…Police Commissioner [William] Bratton at first said, ‘I want to put this to rest right away – this incident was not racial.’ Then it was twice supposed to go to trial. They suggested taking the guy’s vacation days away, which is ridiculous for what he did. Vacation days? The whole thing is ridiculous.”
Just last week it was announced that there would not even be a disciplinary hearing for Frascatore. Betty noted, “They wouldn’t even give any details. There’s a new law in New York that police don’t have to disclose any of the details that go on. There’s no transparency at all. James was furious and he said, ‘I’ve got to talk to my lawyer.’”
This was not the first racist incident involving Blake in New York. In 2001, when he was a young player going up against the feisty Lleyton Hewitt, the Australian let go with a racist rant. He yelled to the chair umpire that Blake and a linesman who had just called foot faults on him were both African-Americans: “Look at him [the linesman] and tell me what the similarity is [to Blake]. I want him off the court…look at what he’s done.”
In that instance, and again when he was thrown to the ground in 2015, Blake’s reactions have been notably subdued. His responses reflect the mild and nuanced approach of a reflective man who played tennis in Harlem as a kid, who greatly admired Arthur Ashe, and who lived and competed in affluent Connecticut for most of his youth before going on to Harvard for two years. Often James seems averse to confrontation.
In a telephone press conference earlier this week, Inside Tennis broached the topic of police brutality with Blake, who will be broadcasting the French Open for The Tennis Channel. We noted that, “Obviously, police officers play such a key role in protecting communities, yet we’ve seen so many problematic incidents.” And then we asked Blake whether this was a matter of a few bad apples, or if something might be amiss in the culture of some of our police departments.
Blake responded, “There are definitely a few bad apples and those bad apples make it more difficult for the overwhelming majority of police officers who do the job the right way and are conducting themselves with honor and integrity and are trying to protect and serve.
“Some of the unions protect the bad apples too fervently. They make sure to protect everyone as opposed to seeing the bigger picture…[which includes] those who don’t deserve to have a badge…[and who] really aren’t cut out for the job…[and should be] let go. [It would help] the community trust the police officers more if they believed the ones that have the badge have earned it and deserve it and are conducting themselves the right way.
“There’s also possibly a breakdown…in terms of the training, because these people are entrusted to make life-and-death decisions every day. Is six months enough to train someone to make that decision about my life? I would rather not go to a doctor performing heart surgery on me that’s been in medical school for six months…There needs to be…a re-tooling of the training program…[so] there aren’t officers [whose] first reaction when they’re scared is to pull the trigger.
“Our military [and police] are heroes. There are a few that are taking away from that…and tarnishing that image because they are abusing their authority. What makes the good ones even better is that they never abuse that authority, they are doing it correctly. I had a run-in with one of those who was not a credit to the badge. It was unfortunate. I would love to see more action done to see those removed from the force…that would encourage my trust in every single police officer out there.”
