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Walking the Thin Black Line: Confronting Racism in the Columbus Division of Police
Melissa McFadden always wanted to be an officer when she grew up--to help people. As she left the disciplined, rule driven, world of the Air Force Security Services and landed her dream job in the Columbus, Ohio Division of Police, she learned that policing was something very different than what she had always dreamed it would be. As a Black woman from the coal country of West Virginia she found herself confronting a big city racist police culture that was born in the slave patrols of Reconstruction, emboldened through the Jim Crow era, challenged in the Civil Rights era and still gaining momentum in the Black Lives Matter era. She walked a thin Black line each day that divided her ability to defend her community against police brutality from her ability to defend herself against discrimination on the job. Her memoir is about her journey through the thicket of racist union contracts, unfair assignment practices, and discriminatory disciplinary decisions. She shares how racism hides within police culture, because the purpose of policing has never shed its original focus—a war on Black people. She never imagined the day that she would be standing in solidarity with young Black activists and their white allies, holding a sign saying Police Reform Now, while shouting BLACK LIVES MATTER! Her voice was silenced for over twenty years of her career through threats of retaliation that included taking her entire pension from her. She has fought, cried, sued, mentored, and demanded justice for her Black colleagues and the Black people of Columbus. And now she can show you her efforts and her failures in hopes that the more you know the more you can be part of the solution that is so long overdue.
- GenresNonfiction
220 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 19, 2020
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April 29, 2021
“I work for the Sheriff’s office… I hunt people – it’s a great job, I love it. I got a bunch of my SWAT members here and even my bosses are here, I appreciate ‘em coming out, they’re good men of God. I’m glad they came out to support us today, but they’ll let you know, I worked this job 14 years, you know I ain’t never been hit clean in the face one time? It’s a fact. It ain’t cuz I’m so good, I ain’t bad, it ain’t cuz I’m so good. You know why? I learned long ago I gotta throw the first punch. And I learned long ago why I’m justified in throwing the first punch. Don’t look up here like ‘oh police brutality,’ people I hit you wish you could hit, trust me. Right? Hahahaha yeah, every time I hit ‘em and I’m like that’s for you, that’s for you [referring to the audience]. It’s not that bad, I’m kidding. But listen, this is the truth. Hah hah. This is the truth” (2018 sermon from Franklin County Sherrif’s Deputy Jason Meade, who shot and killed Casey Goodson Jr.).
“Some police officers believe that we are called by God to help people in our community in their most difficult and dangerous moments. Some wear their uniforms feeling that God ordains police officers to be the authority to enforce His will. Therefore, they believe, if a citizen resists their authority, they are resisting the authority of God and will encounter His wrath” (Walking the Thin Black Line xiv).
Thus begins an alarming and damning portrait of the Columbus Police Department. Melissa McFadden is a 24-year veteran of CPD, a lawyer, and a black woman takes readers inside a racist system that has tried to hide its racist crimes and root out anyone who dares challenge it. McFadden is an excellent writer, and her story reads like a page-turning thriller.
Starting from before she was even training to be a police officer, McFadden recounts the history of CPD’s racism all the way back to a federal lawsuit brought forward by black CPD officers in 1985. In the 70s, CPD had racist hiring practices, a racist promotion system, and horrifically racist treatment of its black officers. One black officer on duty was even “sent by himself to an open field near a cemetery to be confronted by six men in white sheets surrounding a burning cross. This was in 1979 in Columbus, Ohio. The men in white sheets were police officers from his precinct. They said it was a ‘joke’” (42). This federal lawsuit resulted in a hiring mandate that required CPD to hire a larger percentage of black officers. The black officers who brought this federal lawsuit were labelled as troublemakers, most of the white officers participating in the racism were not reprimanded or punished in any way, and the mandate has since been lifted. This previews McFadden’s own experience in the system.
From the very beginning of McFadden’s career, she has challenged the system. She has held officers accountable and herself accountable for following the law, and has called out officers who lie on their reports or break the law in order to make an arrest. This has made her a lot of enemies. Throughout her history she has been denied promotions despite being the most qualified candidate. She has received discipline for incidents that never happened, and had to fight through the courts to prove that she shouldn’t be fired. CPD higher ups have even had the audacity to punish her for “racial prejudice,” simply because she demands that cops do better to serve their community. She is a much stronger person than me, because throughout her ordeals she refused to quit, refused to bend to the will of her supervisors to conform to the system, and chose instead to fight at great financial and professional cost to herself. I’m grateful for that so that we can have this inside look, and I’m grateful she brought receipts! You would think police officers, who deal with all kinds of evidence all day, would realize that there are ways to get access to their Facebook comments. Then again, there is no discipline for the disgusting comments they make, so why would they bother trying to hide it?
I think McFadden is a brave woman, and I believe she genuinely wants to make the police profession a proud one that helps the community, rather than one that subjugates and brutalizes it. But if I were to have one criticism of her, I believe her solutions for fixing policing are not good enough. Towards the end of her story she lists out seven policy change ideas that she and a group of black pastors brought to City Council and the mayor. These were the most basic, nonaggressive changes I have yet seen proposed, and they bring no changes in how the police conduct business, no changes to their funding or training, and no changes to the system itself. They mostly ask that investigations in discrimination and police weapon discharges be handled by outside groups, and that promotions be less “subjective.” It probably wouldn’t surprise you to learn that our brave, not-at-all-corrupted mayor has not implemented most of these changes.
On top of this, McFadden still wants to encourage young people of color to be police officers. And yet she fully admits that this system is set out to destroy the will of those who want to make policing better. On mentoring these young people, she says “I don’t want my history of trying to root out racism to taint these talented young people. They need to get their bearings before they take on the culture of discrimination” (139). Why would someone willingly enter a system that you know and they know is discriminatory against them? She is more honest with herself and the police towards the end of the book: “I want [black youths] to understand that they are not walking into a career that is ready for them to be equals. Black women especially need to work ten times harder to withstand the constant oppression. These young officers will need to seek mentors, organize, not rely on the union, stand up for themselves, and thrust their gut when they see discrimination. Then they need to be ready for retaliation when they call out the racism. They will need to be aware that the white power structure will try to turn them against their neighborhoods. They will need to resist” (197-198). Is it fair to encourage a young person to join a police force while setting expectations like this? She proves throughout her story that being a good cop who tries to change the system from the inside doesn’t work. To tell black people to join this corrupted system that will make their lives hell is naive at best, and irresponsible at worst. It seems to me the best way to resist a racist system is to not participate in it at all.
Walking the Thin Black Line is an instructive text, and a necessary one to provide the perspective of a police officer within these conversations about police brutality. Melissa McFadden set out to tell her story and show what it’s like to walk the thin black line: the line between being a black person who is a victim of white supremacy, and being a police officer whose system supports and reinforces that supremacy. In this regard, she has succeeded, and her bravery and fight should be commended. I don’t know if she meant to talk about progress police reforms have made, or to encourage people to join the profession to continue reforming it, but if that was also her intention, it failed on me. This system cannot be reformed.
I included the quote from Jason Meade at the beginning of this review because it so closely echoes McFadden’s thoughts on how police officers see themselves. They see themselves as chosen ones, as people above all citizens and rules, and they have the violent, authoritative power to back up these beliefs. The discussion on religion, power, and policing is a topic for another day, but I did find this quote from McFadden (a woman of great faith herself) especially interesting: “I know bad behaviors change when I walk in the room. When I can’t see what is happening, maybe a body camera will catch it. If that fails, I know God sees all and will try to protect the victims of police brutality” (85). This is a nice sentiment. It also is not good enough.
“Some police officers believe that we are called by God to help people in our community in their most difficult and dangerous moments. Some wear their uniforms feeling that God ordains police officers to be the authority to enforce His will. Therefore, they believe, if a citizen resists their authority, they are resisting the authority of God and will encounter His wrath” (Walking the Thin Black Line xiv).
Thus begins an alarming and damning portrait of the Columbus Police Department. Melissa McFadden is a 24-year veteran of CPD, a lawyer, and a black woman takes readers inside a racist system that has tried to hide its racist crimes and root out anyone who dares challenge it. McFadden is an excellent writer, and her story reads like a page-turning thriller.
Starting from before she was even training to be a police officer, McFadden recounts the history of CPD’s racism all the way back to a federal lawsuit brought forward by black CPD officers in 1985. In the 70s, CPD had racist hiring practices, a racist promotion system, and horrifically racist treatment of its black officers. One black officer on duty was even “sent by himself to an open field near a cemetery to be confronted by six men in white sheets surrounding a burning cross. This was in 1979 in Columbus, Ohio. The men in white sheets were police officers from his precinct. They said it was a ‘joke’” (42). This federal lawsuit resulted in a hiring mandate that required CPD to hire a larger percentage of black officers. The black officers who brought this federal lawsuit were labelled as troublemakers, most of the white officers participating in the racism were not reprimanded or punished in any way, and the mandate has since been lifted. This previews McFadden’s own experience in the system.
From the very beginning of McFadden’s career, she has challenged the system. She has held officers accountable and herself accountable for following the law, and has called out officers who lie on their reports or break the law in order to make an arrest. This has made her a lot of enemies. Throughout her history she has been denied promotions despite being the most qualified candidate. She has received discipline for incidents that never happened, and had to fight through the courts to prove that she shouldn’t be fired. CPD higher ups have even had the audacity to punish her for “racial prejudice,” simply because she demands that cops do better to serve their community. She is a much stronger person than me, because throughout her ordeals she refused to quit, refused to bend to the will of her supervisors to conform to the system, and chose instead to fight at great financial and professional cost to herself. I’m grateful for that so that we can have this inside look, and I’m grateful she brought receipts! You would think police officers, who deal with all kinds of evidence all day, would realize that there are ways to get access to their Facebook comments. Then again, there is no discipline for the disgusting comments they make, so why would they bother trying to hide it?
I think McFadden is a brave woman, and I believe she genuinely wants to make the police profession a proud one that helps the community, rather than one that subjugates and brutalizes it. But if I were to have one criticism of her, I believe her solutions for fixing policing are not good enough. Towards the end of her story she lists out seven policy change ideas that she and a group of black pastors brought to City Council and the mayor. These were the most basic, nonaggressive changes I have yet seen proposed, and they bring no changes in how the police conduct business, no changes to their funding or training, and no changes to the system itself. They mostly ask that investigations in discrimination and police weapon discharges be handled by outside groups, and that promotions be less “subjective.” It probably wouldn’t surprise you to learn that our brave, not-at-all-corrupted mayor has not implemented most of these changes.
On top of this, McFadden still wants to encourage young people of color to be police officers. And yet she fully admits that this system is set out to destroy the will of those who want to make policing better. On mentoring these young people, she says “I don’t want my history of trying to root out racism to taint these talented young people. They need to get their bearings before they take on the culture of discrimination” (139). Why would someone willingly enter a system that you know and they know is discriminatory against them? She is more honest with herself and the police towards the end of the book: “I want [black youths] to understand that they are not walking into a career that is ready for them to be equals. Black women especially need to work ten times harder to withstand the constant oppression. These young officers will need to seek mentors, organize, not rely on the union, stand up for themselves, and thrust their gut when they see discrimination. Then they need to be ready for retaliation when they call out the racism. They will need to be aware that the white power structure will try to turn them against their neighborhoods. They will need to resist” (197-198). Is it fair to encourage a young person to join a police force while setting expectations like this? She proves throughout her story that being a good cop who tries to change the system from the inside doesn’t work. To tell black people to join this corrupted system that will make their lives hell is naive at best, and irresponsible at worst. It seems to me the best way to resist a racist system is to not participate in it at all.
Walking the Thin Black Line is an instructive text, and a necessary one to provide the perspective of a police officer within these conversations about police brutality. Melissa McFadden set out to tell her story and show what it’s like to walk the thin black line: the line between being a black person who is a victim of white supremacy, and being a police officer whose system supports and reinforces that supremacy. In this regard, she has succeeded, and her bravery and fight should be commended. I don’t know if she meant to talk about progress police reforms have made, or to encourage people to join the profession to continue reforming it, but if that was also her intention, it failed on me. This system cannot be reformed.
I included the quote from Jason Meade at the beginning of this review because it so closely echoes McFadden’s thoughts on how police officers see themselves. They see themselves as chosen ones, as people above all citizens and rules, and they have the violent, authoritative power to back up these beliefs. The discussion on religion, power, and policing is a topic for another day, but I did find this quote from McFadden (a woman of great faith herself) especially interesting: “I know bad behaviors change when I walk in the room. When I can’t see what is happening, maybe a body camera will catch it. If that fails, I know God sees all and will try to protect the victims of police brutality” (85). This is a nice sentiment. It also is not good enough.
January 1, 2021
This should be a must-read for everyone in Columbus, OH. Melissa McFadden, formerly Security Police for the USAF and the highest ranking African-American woman in the Columbus Police, details painstakingly the systemic racism faced by minorities and women in the CPD and how that translates to the ways in which the police treat civilian minorities. She also details the disparity in internal discipline levied toward African-American officers versus white officers, as well as what happens to anyone--particularly women and minorities--who dare to call it out and/or file grievances. She doesn't hold back, naming names and ranks as high as the various Chiefs of Police. The last part of the book, in which she details the absolute failure of CPD during the Black Lives Matter protests, is particularly compelling.
February 10, 2021
What. A. Book!
I don’t live in Columbus (but in Franklin County), and I’ve not been in Ohio 5 years yet, but everything in this book can be imagined happening in any police force.
Melissa McFadden lays out her extensive qualifications for doing the job of police work, asking all the questions she has about why things are wrong and how to make them better, and why her husband expertise is needed to affect real change. She also points to the lack of qualifications and personal biases getting in the way of the very necessary changes.
My own personal educational experiences led me to not be shocked by some of the revelations (tho I was a little stunned by some of the blatancy), that is until the final chapter when she tells us what went wrong in the George Floyd protests late last summer. My jaw is still on the floor.
It’s going to take a lot to get real police reforms, but Melissa McFadden offers small changes to start getting Columbus and surrounding areas there. I cannot wait to see what she has in store once she gains a better foot hold.
I don’t live in Columbus (but in Franklin County), and I’ve not been in Ohio 5 years yet, but everything in this book can be imagined happening in any police force.
Melissa McFadden lays out her extensive qualifications for doing the job of police work, asking all the questions she has about why things are wrong and how to make them better, and why her husband expertise is needed to affect real change. She also points to the lack of qualifications and personal biases getting in the way of the very necessary changes.
My own personal educational experiences led me to not be shocked by some of the revelations (tho I was a little stunned by some of the blatancy), that is until the final chapter when she tells us what went wrong in the George Floyd protests late last summer. My jaw is still on the floor.
It’s going to take a lot to get real police reforms, but Melissa McFadden offers small changes to start getting Columbus and surrounding areas there. I cannot wait to see what she has in store once she gains a better foot hold.
October 7, 2020
I thoroughly appreciated the story, perspective, and words of Melissa McFadden. She breaks down the corruption within the Columbus Division of Police and reveals it through her lens as a Black woman.
She discusses the ways white officers continually perpetuate a culture of racism.
And she reflects on the modern movements happening right inside Columbus.
We need more people like McFadden, willing to speak out against those in power. Especially when she holds a role inside a system currently oppressing the surrounding community.
Anyone looking to understand the experience of cops and why they are so disconnected from the needs of their community must read this book.
She discusses the ways white officers continually perpetuate a culture of racism.
And she reflects on the modern movements happening right inside Columbus.
We need more people like McFadden, willing to speak out against those in power. Especially when she holds a role inside a system currently oppressing the surrounding community.
Anyone looking to understand the experience of cops and why they are so disconnected from the needs of their community must read this book.
November 2, 2020
The author is the highest ranking Black female in the history of the Columbus Division of Police. This her account of her 24 year career following the contrasting clear discipline and rules of four years as an Air Force security specialist, she writes of the racism, white privilege, and lack of rule-following throughout the command structure in the Columbus police department. The book drags some as she gives account after account of having to do battle with the department's biases. The last section dealing with the dis-organised response to recent legal demonstrations which filled our local news was especially gripping.
September 29, 2020
Read it. It's riveting.
I couldn't put the book down. I'd really like to see the author interviewed on national shows to get her story out there. We need more truth-tellers like Lieutenant Melissa McFadden. The trolling reviews are revealing and serve to prove the veracity of her telling of her experiences and those of other black officers in the Columbus Division of Police and the myriad of ways in which she and other black officers are targeted for aggression and retaliation; even still, by those who'd rather not tell us their names, just troll.
I couldn't put the book down. I'd really like to see the author interviewed on national shows to get her story out there. We need more truth-tellers like Lieutenant Melissa McFadden. The trolling reviews are revealing and serve to prove the veracity of her telling of her experiences and those of other black officers in the Columbus Division of Police and the myriad of ways in which she and other black officers are targeted for aggression and retaliation; even still, by those who'd rather not tell us their names, just troll.
November 5, 2020
I was a contributing editor of this book. The story is unique as the first time a working police officer has detailed the racist culture that pervades policing in this country. Her story is compelling, believable, and courageous. If you want to be part of the solutions to police brutality and the overpolicing of the Black community, you will need to understand the problems detailed in this book.
September 23, 2020
This is a quick read that leaves you wondering what is next for Lt. McFadden. In the wake of the 2020 protests, it is now more than ever that we need to take a moment to hear the stories of those who have been attempting to change the system from within. This book gives a new and sadly unsurprising insider perspective on race and policing in America.
September 15, 2023
Must read for any Columbus resident, however it’s relevant anywhere in the US as far as I’m concerned. I appreciate that McFadden is solution oriented and lays out groundwork for how police reform can happen in a meaningful way.
November 13, 2023
It was a really informative book and gave a lot of insight into the Columbus Police Department and how racism, sexism, and classism are embedded in the system. Sometimes it was a bit difficult to follow/understand why screenshots of posts were present, but overall I’d recommend this book
December 23, 2020
Columbus PD has major problems. Very brave of this writer to discuss them.
February 5, 2022
A personal account of racism in the Columbus division of police. A must read for anyone interested in social justice.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews