(Excerpted and edited by Bud Meyers from "Charlie Rangel’s Draft Obsession", the original article by Jim Kouri
Also read: "Charlie Rangel - From Slavery to the Present"
Charlie Rangel and members of the Congressional Black Caucus had once complained that Blacks were being used as "cannon fodder" in the Iraq war, until they were confronted with the fact that only five percent (5%) of the troops in Iraq were African-Americans, while 14% of the US population are black. Rangel backed off from making that allegation when speaking with whites, yet he continues to use the canard when speaking to black audiences.
Some things never change. Back in 1966 Charlie was the general counsel to the National Advisory Commission on Selective Service (The U.S. military draft board - when troops were being sent to Viet Nam.) He had argued then that a supposedly disproportionate amount of "Afro-Americans" were being drafted into the Viet Nam War.
"This is vintage Charlie Rangel. He’s adept at distortion and his proposed draft in 2003 wasn’t meant to improve the military, but to create a Vietnam era military of draftees. Anyone who knows anything about the military knows that conscription brings about negative results," says former Marine intelligence officer and NYPD detective Sid Francis, himself an African-American.
In addition, most men and women in today’s military come from middle- and upper-middle class families.
Republicans understood Rangel’s motive for calling for a renewed draft. He had been opposed to all military actions undertaken by the Bush Administration and was a vocal opponent of the Iraq war, but he saw an opportunity to undermine the military by infusing it with draftees who didn’t want to fight. He is also aware that conscription creates civil discord.
"Rangel’s draft was part and parcel of a "class warfare" strategy that the Democrat Party uses to divide the country," said a high-ranking military officer.
Rangel’s critics pointed out that he has a penchant for making outrageous statements and if he’s asked to reiterate them on television or radio, he backs off from those comments with tepid excuses. For instance, in a speech in Harlem in New York City, Rangel said that President Bush is "our Bull Connor" a reference to the southern sheriff who used attack dogs on civil-rights protesters. Rangel, however, failed to mention that Sheriff Connor was a Democrat.
Let’s take a look at the real Charlie Rangel as evidenced in a little known story of how a New York City detective knocked the robust politician on his keister following the utterance of a Rangelism in the 1960s:
Sidney was one of New York City’s first African-American detectives. In fact, he was so good at policing in the city’s toughest neighborhoods, that he was promoted to the coveted rank of 1st Grade Detective in the NYPD, the youngest in New York’s history. A former Marine - one of the first blacks to be accepted into the Marine Corps in 1945 - Sid was your consummate police officer. Tough, relentless and proud, Sid tempered his tough street persona with intelligence and a sense of fairness that won the respect of his superiors, his fellow cops and the citizens he served. Sid came from a black family of achievement with one brother becoming a police captain and another serving as a colonel in the US Army.
Sidney saw action in Korea at about the same time as Charlie Rangel took to the battlefield with the US Army. While Rangel brags about his military service and being awarded a Purple Heart for wounds he received, Sid believed a good marine does the wounding and killing not the other way around. He openly admired General George Patton and Sid repeatedly viewed the motion picture "Patton" in which, during the opening monologue by George C. Scott portraying General Patton, he says, "No one wins a war by dying for his country. You win a war by making the other poor son-of-a-bitch die for his country." Sid was a blood and guts Marine and a blood and guts cop. I know. I partnered with him during his later years.
While still a young detective, Sidney arrested a black man who was dealing drugs on streets and schoolyards of Harlem. The drug dealer sold heroin to black youngsters who were being told over and over again since they were knee high that their lives were hopeless in an America that at best cared little for them, at worst wanted them in prison or dead. They were indoctrinated with this rhetoric by the likes of Charlie Rangel, white liberals and their echo chamber, the mainstream news media. Detective Sid had little compassion for a man who sold drugs to black kids.
This was when Frank Lucas (featured on American Gangster), was a heroin dealer and organized crime boss in New York City - and had operated in Harlem during the late 1960s through the 1970s. Frank Lucas was the king of the Harlem drug trade, bringing in over a million dollars a day. So many heroin addicts were buying from him on 116th Street (Just 8 blocks away from Charlie Rangel's District Office) that he claimed the Transit Authority changed the bus routes to avoid them.
At the time, Charlie Rangel was an up-and-coming political hack in the local Democrat Club and a lawyer more adept at shooting off his mouth than arguing his position on jurisprudence. Rangel ended up representing a drug-pushing punk - whose parents, by the way, were financially very well off. The punk’s dad was a bigtime contributor to the local Democrat Party and a supporter of Rangel for congressman which led to Rangel acting on behalf of an unrepentant drug pusher. Ironically, Rangel later would become chairman of Congress’ Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control.
(A fox in the henhouse?)
Charlie's current bio says, "Over the past forty years, he has led the fight in Congress against drug abuse and trafficking." (That would be from 1970 to the present.)
So Charles Rangel, attorney-at-law, visited my partner Sid in order to get him to back off and perhaps change some of the testimony should the case go to trial. The young detective told Rangel, "No way. That skell sells poison to kids." At that point Charlie Rangel, a known bully in Harlem and northern Manhattan, called Sid an Uncle Tom and got in his face. The six-foot tall detective hauled off and bopped him right in his face and Rangel went down.
After getting up from the floor and brushing himself off, the opulent then-future congressman made some empty threats of retaliation, however Rangel never filed departmental charges of police brutality. Sid believed Charlie Rangel knew if he did he would find himself in a jackpot over witness tampering and he may have had to kiss his political career goodbye.
From a review of "American Gangster"
Frank Lucas lived a glamorous life, hobnobbing with athletes, musicians, and politicians, but Lucas was a ruthless gangster. He was notorious for using the coffins of dead GIs to smuggle heroin into the United States and, before being sentenced to seventy years in prison, he played a major role in the near death of New York City.
In American Gangster, Mark Jacobson's captivating account of the life of Frank Lucas (the basis for a major motion picture) joined other tales of New York City from the past thirty years. The collection features a number of Jacobson's most famous essays, as well as previous unpublished work and recent articles on 9/11 conspiracy theorists, America's #1 escort, and Harlem's own Charles Rangel, the new chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. American Gangster is a vibrant, many-layered portrait of the most fascinating city in the world, by one of the most acclaimed journalists of our time.
"And you couldn't go to Charlie Rangel because he was also working with the Federal Gov't...The only thing he would do was do something unproductive and which he knew was bullspit like bring in more corrupt cops to make the community feel like they were even more in a war zone...It was a Conspiracy starting at the Federal level." Source
Frank Lucas has been quoted as saying that his worth was "something like $52 million", most of it in Cayman Islands banks.
The Cayman Islands? But didn't Charlie...
- - - -Charlie Rangel's Career- - - -
(During the time Frank Lucas was the Drug King Pin New York City)
In 1961 Charlie Rangel was appointed Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York by the U.S. Attorney Robert Morgenthau (by way of the U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy). Charlie stayed in that position for one year.
His interest in politics grew during the Democratic factional dispute in Harlem in 1963. (As a young man, Charlie first got involved in politics and met Carmine DeSapio and was involved with the New Era Democratic Club.)
In 1965 Charlie participated in the Selma to Montgomery marches.
In 1966 Charlie was selected by the Harlem Democrats to run for the New York State Assembly where he served two 2-year terms. He was also general counsel to the National Advisory Commission on Selective Service (The U.S. military draft board - when troops were being sent to Viet Nam. It had been argued that a supposedly disproportionate amount of "Afro-Americans" were being drafted into the war.)
In 1966 Charlie Rangel emerged as a leader among the black legislators in the state, and became politically friendly with Governor of New York Nelson Rockefeller, who arranged for Rangel to run on the Republican AND the Democratic ballot line during his 1968 re-election. Rangel supported the legalization of the "numbers game", saying "For the average Harlemite, playing numbers is moral and a way of life." He also opposed harsher penalties on prostitutes, believing it ineffective.
In 1969 Rangel ran for the Democratic nomination for New York City Council President, finishing last. Rangel co-founded the Congressional Black Caucus (where he has also served as chairman, and of which he continues to be a member)
In 1970 Rangel ran for election to the U.S. House of Representatives, winning with 88% of the vote.
Since 1971 Charles B. Rangel has been a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives, representing the neighborhoods as Harlem, Spanish Harlem, Washington Heights, Inwood, Morningside Heights, and part of the Upper West Side, as well as a small portion of Queens in the neighborhood of Astoria (predominantly African-American neighborhoods).
Rangel's Congressional Annual Salary during this time in 1971 - $42,400 minimum per year
Rangel had won re-election every two years since then. (His district was numbered the Eighteenth District from 1971 to 1973; the Nineteenth District from 1973 to 1983; and the Sixteenth District from 1983 to 1993; Districts from 1993 to 2006 is unknown to this blogger. Currently 15th District in 2010.)
One of Rangel's first committee assignments was on the House Judiciary Committee where he participated in the impeachment hearings against President Richard Nixon.
Rangel's Congressional Annual Salary in 1975 - $44,600 minimum per year
In January 1975, Frank Lucas' house (across the river from NYC in New Jersey) was raided by a DEA task force and 10 New York Police Department detectives where they found $584,683 cash. He was tried, convicted, and sent to prison for 70 years.
Rangel's Congressional Annual Salary in 1977 - $57,500 minimum per year
Rangel's Congressional Annual Salary in 1979 - $60,660 minimum per year
1981 - Charlie Rangel's Congressional office (near MLK Blvd and 125th) was only a few blocks away from where Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, and Bernardine Dohrn were living. Most of the suspects that were arrested in the October 20, 1981 Brink's robbery were Black Panther Party or Black Liberation Party members, and arrested in Charlie Rangel's district.
Also in 1981, after a little over 5 years in custody, Frank Lucas' 40-year Federal term and 30-year state term were reduced to time served plus lifetime parole. (Political connections?)
In 1984 Frank Lucas' was caught and convicted of trying to exchange one ounce of heroin and $13,000 for one kilogram of cocaine. He was defended by his former prosecutor Richie Roberts and received a sentence of seven years. He was released from prison in 1991.
Charlie Rangel, Frank Lucas, and Bill Ayers - Just six degrees of separation?
* Charlie Rangel's Bio says, "He has resided in a total of two places the whole of his life - the 132nd Street Harlem home in which he was born and raised, and his current apartment down the street on Lenox Avenue." But in his book, he describes it a little differently.
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