Saturday, March 23, 2019

CMPD's Vicki Foster Puts All Her Cards On The Table

CMPD's Vicki Foster puts all her cards on the table, every one of them "the race card", surprised?


From Charlotte Magazine's Greg Lacour:

VICKI FOSTER AND I meet in her third-floor office on a Friday morning in January, roughly 36 hours after a local TV station aired a story about her 50th birthday plans.

Foster, one of two Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department assistant chiefs, had set up a party at the AvidXchange Music Factory for Saturday, February 16, which coincided with NBA All-Star weekend in Charlotte. The department, with a few exceptions, prohibited its rank-and-file officers from taking days off that weekend, an order that didn’t extend to command staff. The station aired a story that said some officers considered Foster’s party evidence of a double standard—even though she had planned the party before Charlotte was awarded the All-Star Game, and, as Chief Kerr Putney pointed out when a reporter asked about it at a news conference, “People’s time off is their time off ... I don’t see where someone’s birthday party is newsworthy for me to address.”

Foster, a 28-year CMPD veteran and the highest-ranking black woman in department history, tells me she knows why the non-story ended up on local TV news. “It’s because I’m a black female. This would not have occurred with anyone else,” she says. “If this had been (Assistant Chief Doug) Gallant, if this had been (Deputy Chief) Katrina (Graue), you wouldn’t have heard a word about it.” Gallant and Graue, like more than 70 percent of the department’s employees, are white.

Foster says she’s endured that kind of discrimination even as—and in large part, she says, because—she’s risen through the ranks. She was promoted to assistant chief, the second-in-command position behind chief of police, in 2017; she plans to retire early next year. The Yanceyville native discusses what led her into police work; how that work has changed since she joined what was then the Charlotte Police Department in 1991; her experiences as a black woman in a profession dominated by white men; and what lies ahead for CMPD and policing in general. Her words are edited for clarity and space.

My undergraduate degree (at UNC Charlotte) was in psychology. I wanted to be a psychiatrist, but when I got out of school, I realized I had to go four more years. So I decided to look on the criminal justice side.

A friend from college and I were both looking for jobs in the criminal justice field. She dared me, like, ‘I bet you won’t be a police officer. I bet you won’t try that.’ I’m like, ‘I bet you I will.’ So we both put in, and the first day, I rode with her. You’re supposed to be in decent shape when you get there—supposed to be. The commandant at the time, long story short, made us do all these push-ups, and we had to run and do all this stuff. Well, she could not do the push-ups she was supposed to do. So he had her stand in the middle, and all of us around her had to get on the ground and do her push-ups that she could not do—and this was after everybody was exhausted. It’s the first day, we don’t know what’s going on. We can’t do this. And she’s standing in the middle, tears just running down her face. And everybody’s staring at her, everybody’s mad.

So we go back to the locker room and get showered up, and everybody goes back to class, and I’m looking around. She’s gone. She quit. I had no ride home. So, needless to say, I won the bet. Got real close to my classmates at that point, ’cause I needed a ride home.

This one time around the mid-’90s, when I was still just a young officer, we were serving a search warrant. It was a known drug house right behind the CVS on South Boulevard—those houses up in there. We go in, there’s a lot of people in the house, and this woman was in a chair. I can’t remember if she had an oxygen tank beside her, but she was definitely an elderly lady, kind of frail, African-American. She was trying to get up out of the chair when we came flying in the door.

And this officer, who was a white male, immediately grabbed her and slammed her down, and something just went all over me ... I don’t know what I said. Then I started going toward him. I was going to get to him if I could. I don’t know who grabbed me, but I do know the sergeant took me away. I was put in the back of a patrol car. I’m in uniform. And I was taken away from the scene.

The sergeant’s no longer here, by the way. The officer’s not, either.

Then I get called to the chief’s office. (Then-Chief Dennis Nowicki) says, ‘I heard what happened.’ I tell him my version. He says, ‘Let me ask you a question. What do you think should happen?’ I said, ‘I think we need to teach these white boys how to treat people.’ Yeah, I’m probably lucky to still be working.

He was a little taken aback, and he said, ‘OK. So you think we need training.’ I said, ‘Yeah. We need something.’ And that was when we started all these classes—I taught a couple at the academy—our, quote-unquote, diversity-type training.

I’ve dealt with (racism) my entire career, so I can’t pinpoint exactly where it’s coming from. You pick it up and you move on.

Actually, when I say my entire career, maybe that’s not totally fair to say. But definitely from the time when Chief (Rodney) Monroe, our first African-American chief, I can definitely say from that point to now. That’s about 11 years.

The rest of the article is here: Charlotte-Magazine

Cedar's Take: I'm not surprised. Every meeting I've ever had with Foster I've walked away with the feeling that she has this huge chip on her shoulder, a palatable anger that she was born black. 

I don't get it. Most of us see a badge, a uniform and that's it. Maybe rank and then a hashed up sleeve? But the first thing she wants you to know is she's black. I don't care what color you are, show, keep up and shut up. Do your job.

But with Foster it is all about race, she's the racist and anyone reading this hit piece by Charlotte Magazine who thinks otherwise needs to have a brain scan. 


12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess city council and the chief are ok with a blatant racist walking the halls of CMPD. This woman has done so many underhanded things over the years and gets away with it every time. I would love to see her get what’s coming to her before she retires with a fat taxpayer funded pension which she didn’t earn. And council wonders why officers are leaving in droves? It’s pieces of filth like this in the chain of command that is driving people out and nobody is willing to stand up to her for fear of losing their job.

Truly a sad commentary for CMPD.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know the details of a sexual discrimination lawsuits filed by a CMPD Captain against Vicki Foster? IF true from what I heard my guess is that she would have been fired instantly if not for her race. A true double standard. Her comments are disgraceful and offensive. She has no business being a police officer using this racial rhetoric.
Has anyone has ever seen her wearing ballistic vest?

Anonymous said...

Is she the same police officer who said she doesn't wear a vest because it would make her tits sag?

SteveN said...

Lots of holes in her stories. Particularly the one about the search warrant. 'Something came over me and I was going to get to him and someone I don't know who grabbed me'.........(paraphrased). Next thing you know she's in the Chief's office (Nowicki). A young officer. I don't ever remember being in the Chief's office. What EXACTLY did she do??? Assault the officer or the sergeant??? Even that isn't likely to warrant a visit to have a sit-down with the Chief. She said that they are 'no longer there'. Well. It's the mid 90s. The sergeant (as they all did back then) had some time on. Likely he's long retired. The officer? Who knows. She makes it sound like she had something to do with them 'no longer being here'.

I don't have any Vicki Foster stories to share. Never worked with her. Seen her here and there over the years, but that's it. So I can't really comment on that. I WOULD say it is strange as Hell......and kind of funny and sad at the same time.......that someone is bitching about 'racism' when they are very near the tippy-top of a large police department serving a million customers. Seems pretty lame.

451 said...

How is that interview not a violation of the directive on social media?

Anonymous said...

Silly rabbit, directives apply only to the little people; not queenie foster and her bumbling bag of race card playing nitwits.

SteveN said...

She was smart enough not to name the officer and the sergeant she had the beef with in the mid 90s on that search warrant. I'm POSITIVE they have a 180-degree different account of what happened from hers. I'm still having trouble getting past her meeting with Chief Nowicki (assuming she's not making it up). I'm trying to visualize myself in a situation where I had a beef with some black officers on the scene of a warrant (or any other call for that matter)........getting called into Rodney Monroe's office where he asks me what I think should happen.......and I tell him that we should 'teach those black boys a lesson'. What do you guys think would have happened to my career???

Anonymous said...

It's time to put the skin color thing to rest. Call it what it really is... Idiots in uniform! They come in all colors and Foster is just another one who has shadowed others who could elevate her to her position. But she isn't the only one. There are sand baggers and brown noses scattered throughout the dept who wouldn't be capable of hacking meter maid duties if it weren't for finding that special someone who allow them to suckle at the power teat in order to achieve their goals...

Anonymous said...

Kinda hard to put the racial thing to rest when shit like this is coming from a high ranking leader.

SteveN said...

10:46, spot-on. Idiots in uniform---sure. Who are ALSO throwing the race thing around.......so it's hard to ignore the 'race' aspect. I wonder, though........as folks climb the ranks in a place like CMPD......do they ONCE ask themselves truthfully......'do I really deserve this'? Or do they just smile.....enjoy the perks.......and assume that their performance at lower ranks ensure that they 'deserved' the promotions? To me, being honest with yourself and your behavior and performance and tossing in a little humility now and then is a mark of a good leader. She seems to be lacking that.....just based on this interview.

Anonymous said...

The promotion process lost all fairness and integrity when it changed to the rule of 5. Long gone are days of promotion based on merit.

Anonymous said...

It always amazes me that the only people who talk or complain about racism are the ones who are racist. Let it go. Good riddance lady.