White Cop, Black Ghetto

By David A. Magnusson

For nearly two years, policeman David A. Magnusson, 27, has patrolled Miami's black Overtown ghetto, where rioting broke out last winter after the shooting of a black motorcyclist by a Hispanic officer. He is a police representative on the panel that is investigating that outburst.

"I'm sure I've said my share of words that perhaps I shouldn't have said, you know, in common, everyday language. But as far as being able to say I can't work an area because this person's a certain color or that person's a certain color, I have not been that way. There's hostility sometimes, say, when you're making an arrest, one of the friends will say, 'Get your cracker ass outta here!' And I might respond with a four-letter word to them on the side. No 'Nigger, this' stuff or nothin' like that. I don't talk like that to people; I refuse to, even with all the 'cracker' stuff. I might grab a guy and say, 'You s.o.b., why would you be callin' me "cracker"? You got somethin' ! against me?' And then he'll think about it, and he'll say, 'Well, no, man, but . . . ' You see, he'll cut back on the hostility."