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Contents on this page were published in the September , 1993 edition of the Washington Free Press.
WFP, 1463 E. Republican #178, Seattle, WA -USA, 98112. -- WAfreepress@gmail.com
Copyright © 1993 WFP Collective, Inc.
SMALL STORIES
ABOUT
BIG NEWS
That the offspring of virtuous police officers don't always follow their parent's example and turn out as less than law-abiding citizens is not unusual.
This seems to have been the case with Tacoma NAACP bombing suspect Wayne Paul Wooten and his dad, Tacoma police Lt. Wayne Paul Wooten. But a closer look at the elder Wooten turns up what may be a troubling twist on the old pattern.
In 1991, Lt. Wooten was reprimanded after an African-American co-worker found a baseball bat in Wooten's desk that had the words "nigger beater" inscribed on it. Wooten explained that he had seized the bat during a fight and that he never got around to placing it into evidence or otherwise getting rid of it.
The Tacoma Police Department conducted an in-house investigation, which led to Wooten being disciplined. But because such files are kept secret from the public, details of the case remain unreleased. One question that comes to mind: Given how many arrests Wooten has made during the course of his 15-plus-year career in Tacoma, how many other pieces of evidence does he have lying around his office?
If Wooten's possession of the epithet-adorned bat was more than just an oversight on his part, it's not surprising that his son, now 18, has been connected to white-supremacist violence. Lt. Wooten's daughter, Janice, also a bigot, helped her brother plan to bomb synagogues, according to published reports citing federal court records.
Some black leaders in Pierce County have come to Lt. Wooten's defense, saying that he has been sensitive to minorities there. But the fathering of two bigots may tell the true story about one of the TPD's highest-ranking officers.
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