Vol. 78/No. 28      August 4, 2014

Protesters gathered several blocks away and marched to the council meeting, many with handwritten signs and wearing T-shirts saying, “Fire Tobin — ‘glove man’ — now.” “Glove man” is the nickname given to Tobin by residents in reference to the leather gloves he would put on when he was getting ready to brutalize someone.

More than a dozen people spoke before the city council. Mayor Hays Arnold sat at a table on the stage with a six-foot-high portrait of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee gazing down on all those assembled in the auditorium. Thomaston Police Chief Dan Greathouse was also present. Thomaston, a city of some 9,000, is about 65 miles south of Atlanta.

“Intimidation is Tobin’s main weapon,” Traylor said. “But there have been broken eye sockets, broken arms, wrongful evictions, taserings and more. He has drawn his gun on people. He has gone after people because they were the children of someone he victimized earlier. The mayor and police chief have allowed him to do this for too many years.”

Traylor is president of the Thomaston Improvement Association, formed after the cops used a Taser on 25-year-old Kelsey Rockemore at the Handy Mart convenience store June 11. The attack sparked a month of protests against police brutality and meetings to demand Tobin’s dismissal. Tobin, who is named in dozens of complaints of police misconduct, is currently suspended with pay. More than 400 people have signed a petition circulated by the Thomaston Improvement Association calling for Tobin’s firing, Traylor said.

The meeting was packed with working people, the majority African-American, with stories of police brutality. Tobin is Black.

“I was beaten and pepper-sprayed by Tobin and other cops,” said Dale Alsobrooks, a young Black man. “I ended up in the hospital for my injuries, but they claimed that I ‘fell in the shower.’”

“I was cuffed, pushed into the bushes, arrested and taken to jail for asking for another officer to come after Tobin started harassing me and my family. They were just sitting in my car and talking,” said Paula Dawson, a 47-year-old Black woman. “I was targeted for living in a certain part of town. That was in January 2008. Now it’s 2014, and he’s still on the job.”

“I’m here from Atlanta to extend a hand of solidarity to those of you who are standing up and fighting,” John Benson, Socialist Workers Party candidate for governor of Georgia, told the audience, to applause. “I support your demand that Tobin must go. If he is fired, it would be a victory for working people — and we need some victories! We must remember that history is made by those who fight, not by those who are elected.”

Tony Clark, 34, a sanitation worker who is Caucasian, got choked up when he tried to speak. Many in the audience who were familiar with his story gave him words of encouragement, but he finally had to sit down. After the meeting, Clark told the Militant that in 2010 Tobin stopped him for driving without a tag on his car. He drew a gun on Clark, who had his young daughter in the car, and used a Taser on him, and put him in jail for three days before filing charges, which were later dropped.

Before the meeting started, Mayor Arnold told the protesters that neither he nor any city council member could comment on incidents involving Tobin because the Georgia Department of Investigation is reviewing it. He also said city officials were discussing calling in the Department of Justice.

“The mayor and chief of police have signed off on Tobin’s actions all this time, because his citations bring in revenue to the city,” Edward Raines said July 13, when Militant supporters from Atlanta met him going door to door here. Raines, 50, who works remodeling houses, has attended all the meetings and rallies. “Hundreds of people have been involved in the protests since June 11. Most of Tobin’s victims are Black, but whites have been hurt too. To tell the truth, if you’re a white worker, an average person, they view you as Black. But it’s not a Black-white issue, it’s a question of what’s right.”
 
 
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Protests against Chicago cop torture ‘keep up pressure’
 
 
 
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