Who’s Johnny Gammage?
by Jason GodeskyYou’ll never hear a Pittsburgher ask, “Who’s Johnny Gammage?” The name is burned in our memories by scandal and strife. It made international headlines–headlines most of us in the Steel City are only now beginning to forget. But it was ten years ago tonight, between 1:47 and about 2:10 AM, that Johnny Gammage died of asphyxiation. He was pinned against the ground of PA route 51 inside the city limits of Pittsburgh–very near to the neighborhood I grew up in, and a route I’ve taken regularly–by five of Brentwood’s finest. Few here would remember the name of Michael Ellerbe, the 12-year-old boy from Uniontown that police shot and killed on Christmas Eve, 2002, or Charles Dixon, who died in a scuffle with Mt. Oliver police at a birthday party–or any of the 20 blacks who wound up dead after run-in’s with the men and women who serve and protect them in the ten years since Gammage died on the asphalt of route 51. We remember Johnny Gammage, even though we want so badly to forget him like all the rest, because the police made a serious mistake. Johnny Gammage was the cousin of Ray Seals–then a tight end for the Pittsburgh Steelers. That’s what made Johnny Gammage a human being deserving of justice.
The Gammage incident eclipsed my middle school years–nearly the entire of that short time I spent recieving a Catholic education. In my eighth grade year, particularly, as John Vojtas was going to trial, and I was going to school in Baldwin, a white, wealthy suburb of Pittsburgh, adjacent to Brentwood–another white, wealthy suburb of Pittsburgh. I was friends with children from Brentwood, who knew Vojtas and his family. I can’t say I “grew up in” Brentwood, though it was very nearby, and I passed through it almost daily. I wasn’t good enough for Brentwood, you see. I was from the city, which, to judge from their reactions, is an affliction not unlike the plague. I’ve never known a larger concentration of the most disgusting racists than among these wealthy, white suburbanites. Brentwood, as a community, remains the most closed-minded, parochial, vindictive, and elitist I have ever known. I introduce it to visitors and outsiders usually as, “the Pittsburgh headquarters of the KKK.”
And then I tell them about Sergeant John Vojtas. At the time of Gammage’s death, Vojtas was just an officer on the beat. Richard Lyons was the foreman of the six-person jury on the coroner’s inquest into the death of Jonny Gammage that recommended that five police officers — Lt. Milton Mulholland and Officer John Vojtas of Brentwood, Sgt. Keith Henderson and Officer Shawn Patterson of Whitehall and Officer Michael Albert of Baldwin be charged with criminal homicide. In an interview for Carnegie Mellon University’s FOCUS magazine, he explained how Vojtas became involved in the events that transpired ten years ago tonight:
When Mulholland was on the stand, he was questioned by [Chris] Conrad, the assistant DA, and was asked to describe from the start what happened. Mulholland said he left a parking lot and noticed a black Jaguar hit its brakes as it passed him. He followed him for a mile and a half to a mile and three quarters, with no lights, just following within 15 feet.
He noticed the brake lights flashing on like he was slowing down and picking up speed. Now if you know Route 51, that’s a slight downhill grade, so in order to stay under the speed limit, you are going to have to tap your brakes. But as far as going lane to lane, that never happened. When he decided to pull the black Jaguar over, he radioed in for backup. Brentwood and Whitehall all cover each other’s calls. When Mulholland radioed, he asked for John Vojtas by name, not just for backup.
When Mulholland hit his lights, Gammage pulled into the right lane, thinking the car was going to pass him because it was on a call. There are three red lights at that spot on 51, approximately 60 feet apart. Gammage went through the light as he was pulling into the right-hand lane. In the papers it said he was running red lights and driving erratically, even though Mulholland testified that he was not exceeding the speed limit. All he stated was that the brake lights kept flashing on.
Mulholland walked up to the driver’s side door and asked for his license and owner’s card. Then Henderson showed up and took the position behind the vehicle, shined his flashlight, pulled his weapon, and pointed it at Gammage. Mulholland walked back to his car and began calling in to see if the Jaguar had any warrants.
Then the third officer, Vojtas, showed up. Vojtas testified he shined his flashlight, and pulled his weapon on Gammage. Henderson testified that he couldn’t hear Gammage talking, but he could hear that Vojtas and Gammage were exchanging a lot of words.
Vojtas ordered Gammage out of the vehicle. When Gammage came out of the car, he was holding a weekly schedule book and a cellular phone. Vojtas knocked them out of his hands with the flashlight. Henderson came around the car and Vojtas went to hit Gammage again with the flashlight, but Gammage grabbed it and threw it on the ground. Henderson and Vojtas grabbed Gammage, wrestled him alongside the car, and went down on the ground between the Jaguar and the police car. Mulholland ran over and jumped on. It went from checking on warrants and everything is calm and cool, to a guy on the ground with three police officers on top of him. Something had to happen when Vojtas showed up. We [the jury] feel that Vojtas instigated Gammage into saying something for him to want to strike him and for Henderson to get involved.
Vojtas is just an all-around great guy. His acquittal in the death of Johnny Gammage was rewarded by a promotion to sergeant, but it seems the publicity shined a little too much for the other Johnny, eventually drudging up the case of his ex-girlfriend, Judy Barrett:
Then, in 1999, Barrett’s ghost rose up from the grave.
Barrett, then Vojtas’ fiancee and a single mother, died in 1993 of a gunshot wound to the head. The bullet came from Vojtas’ service weapon. By the time Allegheny County police arrived at the bus kiosk where Barrett died, Brentwood police had removed all the evidence. The coroner’s office ruled her death a suicide, and portions of the case file mysteriously disappeared.
…
Meanwhile, certain points of testimony from the Barrett case are still crying out for investigation: that Vojtas called fellow officers for a ride on the night of her death but failed to mention that she’d left suicide notes and taken his gun; that he lied in sworn testimony about his use of steroids; and that he produced large amounts of cash without credible explanation of its source and kept large sums in his police locker.
The official story is that Barrett killed herself in 1993–two years before Gammage died–to escape Vojtas’ physical abuse. The same abuse that another girlfriend–the mother of his children–escaped by having three orders of protection issued against him.
As of 1 January 2004, Vojtas is back on the beat.
On the tenth anniversary of Gammage’s death, we have another case from New Orleans, as a case of local collapse comes back into the fold of complexity and hierarchy. In the same way that Gammage was “speeding through red lights and driving erratically,” Robert Davis was “publicly intoxicated.” Of course, as it has since come out, Davis has been dry since he “blacked out” from drinking too much some 25 years ago. What was he doing to “provoke” such a brutal response, then? He was, by all reports … asking an officer for the time, because he was concerned about when the curfew was.
The only reason we know about Roger Davis is because it happened to be caught on tape, by an AP reporter who happened to be passing by. The incident is so egregious, so graphic, that even Fox News–friend to abusive, power-drunk bullies the world over–is wondering: how much more is going on, that we’re not seeing?
And of course, what touch on this subject can go by, without a reference to April 26, 1992? Again–would any of us know who Rodney King is, were it not for that tape? (Though, his name is actually Glen King–”Rodney” was attached erroneously by the press.)
It’s easy to see this as a matter of white, racist cops killing innocent blacks simply because they can. I’m certain blind racism certainly plays its part, but it is only a part. This is the natural result of the monopoly of force.
The “monopoly of force” is a philosophical bedrock of all civilization, that dictates that only the state may legitimately use force. “Gangs” cannot wage war, but “armies” can. You cannot shoot someone–but a police officer can. The state becomes nothing more than a thug on a large scale. Leviathan is differentiated from all others in the Hobbesian bellum omnium contra omnes only by virtue of being bigger. It is the ultimate expression of “might makes right.” Even a civilized apologist like St. Augustine could not escape this fact:
Justice being taken away, then, what are kingdoms but great robberies? For what are robberies themselves, but little kingdoms? The band itself is made up of men; it is ruled by the authority of a prince, it is knit together by the pact of the confederacy; the booty is divided by the law agreed on. If, by the admittance of abandoned men, this evil increases to such a degree that it holds places, fixes abodes, takes possession of cities, and subdues peoples, it assumes the more plainly the name of a kingdom, because the reality is now manifestly conferred on it, not by the removal of covetousness, but by the addition of impunity. Indeed, that was an apt and true reply which was given to Alexander the Great by a pirate who had been seized. For when that king had asked the man what he meant by keeping hostile possession of the sea, he answered with bold pride, “What thou meanest by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, whilst thou who dost it with a great fleet art styled emperor.�
— De Civitate Dei, book IV, chapter 4
It is not a matter of “good cops” or “bad cops,” or whether police are “good people.” Half the police are idealists who dream of helping people and making the world a better place. The other half are sadists on a power trip. They are the natural result of the monopoly of force. In our entire lives, we have never known freedom. It is removed from our ability to even conceive of it. From our first hour, our parents subject us to the cruelty of being subject to another’s command, not because they are evil, or even bad parents, but because they know no other way–they are as much victims as us. It is an unnatural state for humanity, but it is something we have never been without in our lives. We are left, like the poor wretches in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” without any point of reference–without any notion of what “freedom” even means. We cannot think what freedom might be, so we imagine that it must be like being the master, rather than the slave.
We invest in the police all the use of legitimate force that we have surrendered. We arm them and invest them with a power and authority that somehow seems more than human. As one commentator to the Martian Anthropologist article on Roger Davis linked above put it:
I know cops personally–my son’s godfather is a cop. Anyone with that much power learns to act like they are above the law. As much as I care for the cops that I know personally, they act differently when they are on the field.
In uniform, a cop is no longer the same person. He is Law, and Order.
It is the kind of power that would transform anyone. It is not a matter of a few “bad apples,” it is a matter of a systemic alienation. It is what happens when you have some individuals who are “allowed” to command others–some individuals who are “allowed” to use force, but not others. It is what happens when you take someone who’s been a slave his whole life, and make him the master.
It is an abused child, who grows up to become an abuser.
Those cops who fall prey to that natural calling of their profession do not do so randomly. Yes, they fall prey to their bigotry and prejuidice, as well, but more than anything else–they seek out the most powerless. They have power; they abuse only those who do not. The poor, the hated–and in a white-dominated, racist America, that demographic skews black. It is, ultimately, the same root of their racism. They combine to create something more than the sum of their parts.
Usually, they reckon the powerless correctly, and we never hear a word. We only hear about it when they miscalculate. When a video tape gives power to the powerless. Or when the man you pull over turns out to be the cousin of a professional football player.
“Johnny Gammage was the cousin of Ray Seals–then a tight end for the Pittsburgh Steelers. That’s what made Johnny Gammage a human being deserving of justice.”
This doesn’t sound right.
Comment by Mad Max Jr — 12 October 2005 @ 2:47 AM
Hey –
I’m surprised that you didn’t cite the Stanford Prison Experiment. Seems like an obvious choice
Janene
Comment by Janene — 12 October 2005 @ 8:53 AM
Max–it isn’t right, is it? But that’s what happens.
I commented on a recent article of the Martian Anthropologist’s, and thought I’d quote it here, as it’s rather relevant:
Comment by Jason Godesky — 12 October 2005 @ 3:06 PM
First I would like to say that everything said about Brentwood, my hometown posted in this essay is completely fictional. Also, that I have known John V personally my whole life and that he is nothing but a caring loving human being. Also, I was in 6th grade when all of this happened. I remember all of this happening, having the KKK march unwanted in Brentwood and being deathly afraid of those cowards with sheets on there heads! Basically, I think that the author of this is the racist toward white-weathly (by the way Brentwood does not fit in this category, we are a middle class community.) He needs to realize that justice serves whites and blacks… That whites die in the custody of the police as well.
Comment by C.C — 29 August 2006 @ 11:18 PM
I guess you missed the part where I mentioned that I’ve spent a good deal of my life in Brentwood, too. Not from Brentwood, like you, so it didn’t matter that my skin was the color of unbaked cookie dough, they still didn’t want my “kind.”
I was in eighth grade when the KKK came, so I was a little older than you. I do remember a lot of native Brentwoodians being upset at the KKK being there, but I also remember them saying the same things as the KKK, just being embarrassed at the association. I remember the most common complaint being that the Klan was too much a rabble, and that they preferred groups with more discipline, like the Aryan Brotherhood. I’ve never been in a place where racism could be announced so openly, and met with so much approval.
I’ve had a few brushes with Vojtas, and all of them left me pretty shaken, but we could swap anecdotes all day—we can all see what “caring loving human being” he is from the way he keeps beating the hell out of women, until they kill themselves or run away.
“The author of this” article is me—a pasty white boy from the most suburban edge of the city of Pittsburgh, who spent the better part of a decade in Brentwood on a daily basis. Calling Brentwood “middle class” is a fine example of how everyone tries to extend “middle class” to cover themselves.
But as an anarchist, I realized long ago that “justice” doesn’t serve anyone. But, since “whites die in the custody of the police as well,” could you name me one? Just one white man who’s died in the custody of Brentwood’s finest?
Comment by Jason Godesky — 30 August 2006 @ 9:32 AM
Hello. My name is Michael Barrett. I’m a twenty-year old resident of North Baldwin. Judy Barrett was my aunt. Granted, I’m over a year late on this post, but it only came to my attention now.
I would like to add to the story posted originally, that “As of 1 January, 2004…Vojtas is back on the beat”, unrelated; so the powers that be claimed, to the death of Lillian Barrett, mother of Judy and my grandmother. Lil was in Brentwood month after month for the decade after her daughter was killed (some of us still do not accept the contention of suicide), being a constant “pest” to members of the appropriately described citizens of Brentwood. She died 28 February, 2003. Vojtas’ return to the force was announced in late November/early December of ‘03. After being placed on indefinite desk duty after my family’s “victory” in civil court against Vojtas in 1999, it was only nine months after my grandmother’s death that Vojtas was allowed to return to full active duty. Personally, I find all the “coincidences” surrounding Vojtas’ time on the force sickening.
Also, in response to the thread between “C.C.” and Jason, I have this to say. John Vojtas is a liar. He is an abuser. He is corrupt. These assertions are not opinions; rather documented FACT. This isn’t a conspiracy against a good white man always in the wrong place at the wrong tim. This is a community [Brentwood] blindly protecting a man for reasons only God can know. I witnessed, at the age of six years old, the man physically abuse my aunt. If you continue to believe the things you say about Sergeant Vojtas, you are another naive resident of an already blindfolded community, and it is the lack of an outcry from specifically Brentwood residents that leaves you just as responsible for the crimes he has committed as the man himself and the police department that employs him.
- Michael Barrett
Comment by Mike Barrett — 11 December 2006 @ 9:13 AM
Thanks for putting it in proper perspective, Michael.
Comment by Jason Godesky — 11 December 2006 @ 9:50 AM
Brentwood PA is a completely Effed up place. Most of the natives are indeed racist and backward. Also, it is NOT a wealthy suburb…thats a joke. Mt. Lebanon, Upper St. Clair..those are wealthy Pittsburgh suburbs, and Brentwood would only be anywhere near their stature in a wet dream.
The police department is, to other police departments with professionalism and integrity, a complete embarrassment and abomination. The citizens welcomed Vojtas back on the streets with open arms…the Nation if not the World reacted with shock and outrage to the Gammage case, but Brentwood sees nothing wrong, and not only reinstated him, Promoted him. Guess the whole world is wrong and Brentwood is right huh? Pretty bold for such a podunk, backward community.
From time to time there have been people running for office who want to change things, but they never succeed, and one was even physically assaulted (Cranmer). Their current police chief, who I know personally as an honest person with morals, has been hounded by the Council for months, bringing up charges regarding the validity of his contract, use of police vehicles, purchasing uniforms, all kinds of crap to see if they can have him ousted. They probably want him out because he has intelligence and can smell BS a mile away. When I heard he wanted to be Chief there, I couldn’t believe my ears…..he’s not the kind of person for that community, they need (and want) a good ole boy Barney Fife dweebie. The Gammage case painted the Pittsburgh area in a bad light, and Brentwood Borough is the cause.
Comment by jg — 22 May 2007 @ 3:39 AM
Those are very wealthy, but Brentwood’s average income is still something that would make most of the rest of the country envious. In the world’s last hyperpower, “wealthy” extends so far up into the stratosphere it can become easy to forget just how wealthy one group really is.
Comment by Jason Godesky — 22 May 2007 @ 9:40 AM
This is totally the way Brentwood is. Brentwood is the land of the racist and almost everyone that lives there is on some kind of drug. I get DWB’s=(DRIVING WHILE BLACK) all the time and told that I am a drug dealer just because the color of my skin. THE parents and kids of Brentwood need to start worrying about their own problems and not someone else’s. Cause Borough is full of problems. Thre cops do what they want and this needs to come to an end. I’m scared I’ll be the next Jonny Gammage
Comment by budda — 22 July 2007 @ 8:08 PM
Alot of the stuff you hear about this incident is hearsay and was disproven. Though some police officers are ignorant for the most part they are not and even though Brentwood is predominately white not all are racists and the same goes for the police officers involved. I am sorry Johnny Gammage died but how can one tell who is driving a vehicle when the windows are illegally tinted and dark? He also assaulted two officers nearly biting off the thumb of one officer and assaulted another one. One of the officers has the backing of African– Americans who live in the community — actually many African — Americans who live in this community think it is old news and need to move on. The one officer was specifically asked by members of the African — American community to deal with their children who were having behavior problems because he treated the kids like human beings and was always willing to listen to what made the kids angry. Race was not an issue in this and though some officers are jerks look at all sides of this case and not what the media puts out there.
Comment by Anonymous — 31 October 2007 @ 8:24 PM
Dear Anonymous Poster,
I think you may want to check your facts on this case. I also wonder which officer you are referring to, and what your sources are for that information. Please don’t tell me that police are poor misunderstood creatures. I have spent most of my life in Mechanicsburg, PA and have seen firsthand police corruption and brutality. In Lebanon PA I witnessed two polcie officers brutally beat a Puerto Rican who got into an altercation with another motorist who happened to be white, despite the fact that the white man had pulled a gun on the puerto rican. A friend’s rpegnant girlfriend was dragged out of a vehicle and beaten by a Hampden Township police officer. And a final example I’ll leave you with: A friend of mine who worked as a security guard at Lebanon Valley High school, who stumbled upon a drug deal and turned the dealer in. It turned out that the drug dealer worked for a cop , and my friend began receiving death threats when the connection became public. The connection was of course quickly buried for “lack of evidence”. In the meantime my friend had two cops tell him that nobody would ever find his body if he pressed the issue. These are just a few examples local to me, there are countless others out there. Yes there are some good cops out there but let’s remember one ting: police forces started in this country as gangs. They are just the toughest gangs in town, and the best equipped.
I am the whitest Irish-American you’ll ever meet, so don’t even try pinning this on reverse racism and black exaggeration. Cops don’t even always care what colour you are. They just hate anyone that doesn’t conform to their world view.
Comment by DJM — 1 January 2008 @ 7:38 PM
Brentwood & Baldwin wealthy, white suburbs???? Give me a break. Brentwood is a very poor (still predominately white) suburb. Brentwood’s complexion is changing, as the public housing was demolished within the City of Pittsburgh, the black residents of the projects are gradually moving into Brentwood. Brentwood has some of the highest taxes in Allegheny County (second only to Wilkinsburg, a very poor almost all-black municipality) due to the poor tax base in Brentwood. Brentwood schools are among the worst in the county due to the low incomes and low-level of over-all education in Brentwood. Baldwin is hardly wealthy, more like working-class.
Comment by Anon — 8 September 2008 @ 11:19 AM
Just a few comments.
1. Brentwood is not wealthy, it is middle class.
2. John Vojtas is horrible. He was just at my house tonight on a call because my neighbor was blocking my garage. He gave a complete attitude and gave everyone parking tickets. He didn’t even make my neighbor move his car so now I have to leave my car out at night, so it will probably get keyed again.
3. Also, my house has been vandalized 3-4 times in the past year and the cops have done nothing!!!
Comment by Sarah — 19 September 2008 @ 9:03 PM
There’s a tendency in the U.S. to greatly exaggerate the middle class. Nearly everyone imagines themselves as “middle class,” including the quite wealthy. Most people in Brentwood describe themselves as middle class, yes. But, as mentioned before, I have no small experience with Brentwood. It is quite well off.
But why believe personal anecdotes like these? In the 2000 census, 6.1% of Brentwood’s population fell below the poverty line; for the city of Pittsburgh, 20.4%. At any given time, about 12%-16% of the U.S. population as a whole falls below the poverty line. So Brentwood’s percentage of poor people stands at half the national average, and a third of the adjacent city’s.
Personally, I think anyone who tries to say that Brentwood doesn’t count as wealthy has simply enjoyed their wealth for so long they’ve lost all perspective on what “wealthy” means. And frankly, I’ve met far too many Brentwood residents with an experience and perspective so narrow that they could easily fit that description.
Comment by Jason Godesky — 19 September 2008 @ 10:44 PM