← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · jay

Thread 4557

Thread ID: 4557 | Posts: 10 | Started: 2003-01-21

Wayback Archive

jay [OP]

2003-01-21 23:47 | User Profile

[url=http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/story.asp?ID=30821]http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/story.asp?ID=30821[/url]

NAACP chief lies about his past Supporters say they’re shocked and embarrassed

Dan Popkey The Idaho Statesman

Wade Dawson, who in a few short months has become one of the most influential African-Americans in Idaho, has fabricated essential elements of his past. Dawson, who became president of the Boise-Ada-Elmore Chapter of the NAACP just five months after joining last year, has had the ear of Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and Sens. Mike Crapo and Larry Craig.

But Dawson is not the man the governor and senators think they have come to know in recent months, the man Crapo said he wanted to get to know to better appreciate the African-American experience.

Dawson, 46, told KTVB-Channel 7 on Friday that he served time in an Idaho prison. He declined to say what led to the crimes but that he has changed his life and that he is an effective leader. He was “coming forward to shed light on his journey,” Channel 7 reported. Members of the NAACP joined him, in front of the Black History Museum, to say they stand behind him.

What Dawson didn´t admit was that between 1976 and 1992, he was imprisoned in four states for forgery, falsifying documents for financial gain, and grand theft; only the most recent prison time was in Idaho.

He didn´t admit that he never played for the Oakland Raiders, as he told The Idaho Statesman and others, despite the vanity plate on his red Lincoln Navigator, ORNFL, for “Oakland Raiders, NFL.”

He didn´t admit that he never wore No. 86 for the University of Michigan and didn´t get a bachelor´s degree in business, as he claims. In fact, Wade Dawson never attended the university.

He didn´t admit that he has outstanding tax liens from both the Internal Revenue Service and the Idaho State Tax Commission.

Dawson has refused repeatedly in the last three weeks to explain these discrepancies to The Idaho Statesman.

NAACP members and public officials were shocked Friday night.

Henry Toy, an NAACP board member, said Dawson invited him and several others to Dawson´s house Thursday night to tell them he had a criminal record in Idaho and it involved writing bad checks.

“Last night, there was something we didn´t know about, and that was the bad checks,” he said. He declined to comment on the revelations of The Idaho Statesman´s investigation.

Charles Warren, a founding board member and now second vice president of the NAACP, saw Dawson on TV Friday.

“I have no knowledge whatsoever of this,” Warren said. “That would be so embarrassing to me. Had I known all that, I would have had a totally different perspective.”

Warren said he´s not sure whether he still has confidence in Dawson´s ability to continue serving as president. “It´s something that I have to mull in my mind... I will be asking some questions to see what the deal is.”

He said he was not informed of Dawson´s decision to go public.

“He´s a publicity seeker — we´ve observed that. He seemed to relish that, “ Warren said.

A public figure

By trading on his invented story of being a football star, Dawson has gained the trust of important Idahoans.

Crapo asked Dawson to attend the Dec. 20 press conference where he and Craig commented on the resignation of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. Both said they were glad to have Dawson´s counsel on race issues.

“There´s new leadership here that is very positive, in the form of Wade,” said Craig last year, lauding the new NAACP president. “It does help us shape our thoughts and actions that we might take on certain issues as they come along.”

Crapo twice had dinner with Dawson in December and appeared with Dawson and his wife on the couple´s cable TV show, “Idaho Tonight,” on Dec. 30.

Ralph Smith, owner of Alpine Productions and “Idaho Tonight,” said this month he plans to begin airing the show on FOX 12 this spring. Dawson will be Smith´s co-executive producer and a guest when the public affairs show discusses topics of interest to the NAACP, Smith said. Dawson´s wife, Carol, will host the program, Smith said. The Dawsons also appear occasionally as hosts on “Northwest Live,” on 580 Newsradio KIDO.

**Smith said Dawson told him he played for the Raiders from 1976-1983. Smith said he plans to have Dawson “sign some publicity photos and stuff like that” at promotional TV and radio events this spring. “It´s pretty cool to have somebody like that in our town to be honest with you,” Smith said. **

Smith said Dawson is valuable as both as a “newsmaker” and somebody with the connections to book top guests. “He has pretty open access to all the political leaders,” Smith said.

Dawson sat in the VIP gallery at Kempthorne´s State of the State address on Jan. 7. Mark Snider, Kempthorne´s spokesman, said Friday “it was a misunderstanding, a miscommunication.” Dawson called the governor´s office and mistakenly thought he´d been invited, but wasn´t, Snider said. When he showed up, he was allowed to sit in the gallery anyway.

Snider said “the governor was not aware of what appears to be an extensive criminal record.”

Of all the elected officials, Crapo is closest to Dawson. He invited Dawson to join him and Craig at the Dec. 20 press conference on Lott. The night before, they had dinner together. Crapo asked Dawson what it was like to play for the Oakland Raiders. Dawson had little to say, Crapo said. “He just kind of smiled.”

The Dec. 20 meeting was delayed a few minutes to give Dawson time to arrive. During the session with reporters, Crapo said he planned to get to know Dawson better. After reporters left, Crapo told Dawson he wanted to travel with Dawson to his home town, Detroit, so he could better appreciate the African-American experience. Crapo, in turn, invited Dawson to visit him and his family in Idaho Falls.

“Relationships on a personal level are going to be developed,” Crapo said at the press conference, just four days after Dawson called Crapo´s office to ask to meet the senator to discuss Lott.

At the press conference the next day, Dawson said he was pleased with the senators´ confidence. “The NAACP office is definitely going to be visible. With these gentlemen, it can be even bigger.”

Dawson agreed with Crapo that personal connections are vital. “I´d like them to understand who Wade Dawson is, who my family is, who are their families, who are their children. Because that´s what´s important.”

But Dawson hasn´t been straight with his powerful patrons.

Crapo said Dawson just told him Wednesday that he had a conviction in Idaho and had been pardoned. That was the day The Idaho Statesman told Dawson specifically what the newspaper had found. When reached Friday night, Crapo said, “It´s disconcerting to hear that kind of information. He has not made those representations to me. I certainly want to visit with him to see what his explanation is about these facts.”

When reached late Friday night, Dawson said: “No comment.”

Prison, not football

During much of the period he claimed to be playing football he was in prison.

**It began in September 1976, when Dawson says he was beginning his second of three seasons as the starting tight end at Michigan, which played in that season´s Rose Bowl.

Truth is, Dawson was beginning 21 months in prison in South Carolina for a forgery conviction in Greenville County, according to the South Carolina Department of Correction.**

In July 1981, when the Raiders were beginning training camp, Dawson was sentenced to three years in prison for a deceptive practice conviction — for passing bad checks — in Lake Forest, Ill. Dawson served 15 months of that sentence.

In October 1988, shortly after he said he moved to Idaho and was living on his football earnings, Dawson was convicted in Scott County, Iowa, of fraudulent practice, the altering or falsification of documents for financial gain. He was sentenced to five years, according to the Iowa Department of Correction.

But just five months later, in March 1989, Dawson left the Iowa prison system and was brought to Ada County, where he was convicted of forgery for passing a forged check at Albertsons. He served 2 1/2 years of a five-year sentence in Idaho. Paroled in September 1991, he began working as a car salesman in Canyon County.

Three months later, he was back behind bars. Dawson was accused of cashing three checks, totaling $11,306, written to his employer, Twin Cities Toyota. Dawson pleaded guilty to grand theft and was sentenced to another year, with three years indeterminate. He was paroled a second time Dec. 17, 1992.

Since then, Dawson has no criminal record. He won a pardon in Idaho in 2000 and praise from the Idaho Commission on Pardons and Parole for his service to PAYADA, Parents and Youth Against Drug Abuse. In 1993 and 1994, Dawson volunteered to teach classes to parents and students about drug abuse, according to PAYADA.

In recommending parole to the commission in March 2000, a senior parole officer wrote: “My experiences with Mr. Dawson taught me that he is very charismatic and capable of deceiving almost anyone. Frequently he would use these attributes to manipulate women and to deceive others for his financial gain. During the final months of his parole Wade appeared to have given up his deceptive ways, but I still had my doubts. This investigation has given me the opportunity to take another look at Mr. Dawson and re-evaluate his dedication to changing his criminal, manipulative lifestyle.”

In a letter to the commission requesting parole, dated February 2000, Dawson said he wanted to be “the best Christian that I can be, as well as a good husband and one day father.”

But Dawson already had children. According to 1981 Illinois Department of Corrections records, Dawson had five children. Minutes of the Idaho parole commission dated October 1992, said he had been married and divorced twice and had four children, the youngest a 9-year-old girl.

In his first interview with The Idaho Statesman on Dec. 27, when asked if he had children, Dawson said no. When asked about that discrepancy in a phone interview Thursday, Dawson said he meant that he and his current wife have no children but that he has two daughters by a previous relationship.

Dawson repeatedly refused to discuss his criminal record with The Idaho Statesman.

Asked directly if he had a criminal record, Dawson said on Jan. 9: “I don´t have any comment. Because, No. 1, I don´t like how you guys went about doing this. In fact, I don´t have anything more to say to you guys. You print whatever you´re going to print, and then I´ll deal with it in the aftermath.”

“You´re asking questions that don´t even pertain to you,” Dawson said in the same telephone interview. “You guys, if you´re gonna print your story, go on and print your story. If you want to tear someone down from what they´re trying to do — positive stuff in the community — you go right ahead and do that.”

Financial problems, too

Since leaving prison, Dawson has had financial problems. Dawson and a previous wife, Candace, filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in 1996. They listed $144,228 in debt. The case was closed in 2000.

Federal and state tax collectors have outstanding liens against Dawson. In 2000, the IRS filed a lien for $23,582. The lien, which has not been released, says Dawson owed $12,413 in income taxes for 1997-99 and a civil penalty of $11,169.

And in July, two months after he was elected to lead the NAACP, the Idaho State Tax Commission filed a lien against Dawson for an unspecified amount. Liens are filed to notify and take priority against other potential creditors.

Dawson was first asked by The Statesman about the discrepancies on Dec. 27, in a phone interview that followed the 2 1/2 -hour interview at his Boise Bench home. In the interview at his home, Dawson said he was drafted in the fifth round by the Raiders in 1978, wore No. 86 and played for five years, two as a starter, before retiring after the 1982 season. (The Raiders won the 1981 Super Bowl.)

Dawson said he retired because he was weary of the game. “I was a little bit ready to say, ´I´ve experienced this.´ It wasn´t all the things I thought it´d be,” Dawson said in the first Dec. 27 interview. “Football was such a great time and such an opportunity to release a lot of energy. But it´s changed from a game of fun. It´s about money.”

Dawson said he moved to San Jose, Calif., after retirement and “traveled around California,” living on his football earnings for six years, before moving to Idaho in 1988.

**But Raiders Executive Assistant Al LoCasale said Dawson was neither drafted nor ever a member of the team. LoCasale has been with the Raiders since 1969.

“That name doesn´t ring a bell at all,” said LoCasale, who checked the Raiders historical roster and draft lists during a telephone interview. “It would ring a bell if we had drafted him, and we didn´t. It would ring a bell if he played here three or four years, and no one with that name did.”

Dawson countered that he had a legal dispute with Raiders owner Al Davis, who purged his name from team history.

“Well, yeah, he can do that,” Dawson said. “That´s why I don´t make that big a deal about this — is because I´m actually working with him right now to try to get that squared away.” **

Told that Dawson alleged Davis struck his name from Raiders´ history, LoCasale uttered an expletive, denying any such revision.

In the first Dec. 27 interview, Dawson also spoke of his years at Michigan, where legendary coach Bo Schembechler “stepped in almost like a second father.” Schembechler “talked about people who play but don´t get an education,” motivating him to complete his business degree in four years.

**But, according to the Michigan Athletic Department, Dawson never played for the Wolverines. In fact, University Registrar Paul Robinson said there is no record that Dawson ever attended.

As for Schembechler, Michigan Athletic Department spokeswoman Tara Preston said, “We did check with Bo and, unfortunately, Bo has never heard of Wade Dawson.”**

To offer story ideas or comments, contact Dan Popkey dpopkey@idahostatesman.com or 377-6438

amundsen

2003-01-21 23:58 | User Profile

I have found that blacks have a far greater tendancy than whites to exagerate, or simply make up stories. I guess it is part of their creative genius that has contributed so much to this nation. This story is no suprise.

il ragno

2003-01-22 02:09 | User Profile

Bless you, Jay. This shockingly hilarious story is the perfect way to launch Black History month.

Hell, this story IS Black History.

Ed Toner

2003-01-22 13:04 | User Profile

Great Stuff!

jay

2003-01-22 19:19 | User Profile

Originally posted by il ragno@Jan 21 2003, 20:09 ** Bless you, Jay. This shockingly hilarious story is the perfect way to launch Black History month.

Hell, this story IS Black History. **

Yup, you said it.

I think the great part of the story isn't the lies he told. Or the fact that youth followed him, believing the fool's lies.

It's the fact that GOP leaders like Senator Craig actively solicited his advice and spoke well of him. Typical GOP losers, blind as bats.

-Jay

Roger Bannister

2003-01-23 05:50 | User Profile

Originally posted by jay@Jan 22 2003, 13:19 ** > Originally posted by il ragno@Jan 21 2003, 20:09 ** Bless you, Jay. This shockingly hilarious story is the perfect way to launch Black History month.

Hell, this story IS Black History. **

Yup, you said it.

I think the great part of the story isn't the lies he told. Or the fact that youth followed him, believing the fool's lies.

It's the fact that GOP leaders like Senator Craig actively solicited his advice and spoke well of him. Typical GOP losers, blind as bats.

-Jay **

You know how it goes for the Raiders Jay. "Just Win Baby." This guy followed that philosophy. So many Whites seem desperate to believe any black that appears respectable, it's embarrassing.

il ragno

2003-01-23 11:43 | User Profile

**1. The night before, [as] they had dinner together, Crapo asked Dawson what it was like to play for the Oakland Raiders. Dawson had little to say, Crapo said. “He just kind of smiled.”

1. Dawson countered that he had a legal dispute with Raiders owner Al Davis, who purged his name from team history. “Well, yeah, he can do that,” Dawson said. “That´s why I don´t make that big a deal about this — is because I´m actually working with him right now to try to get that squared away.” Told that Dawson alleged Davis struck his name from Raiders´ history, LoCasale uttered an expletive.

2. Warren said he´s not sure whether he still has confidence in Dawson´s ability to continue serving as president. “It´s something that I have to mull in my mind... I will be asking some questions to see what the deal is.” **

Which excerpt is the funniest? Call 1-900-FAKE JIG & vote for YOUR favorite!

Maybe the funniest aspect of all is how gingerly the press and the city of Boise is treading, STILL! Or that this hasn't become a national story!

Nor will it ever. It is quietly understood by the Powers That Be that...well....this is what blacks are, after all. Certainly, this is all you can expect or deserve after 50 years of focusing on 'racism' without one iota of realism stirred into the pot. That's why stories like this wait patiently for Us Awful Racists to seize upon em. Brokaw & Jennings and the rest would never play this up big, never center one of their insufferably pompous White Papers or Town Hall Meetings On Race In America around the Saga of Wade Dawson - or, as I'll always think of him, [color=blue]Ol' No. 86[/color].

Heck - if the freakin' SNIPERS dropped off the radar a week later - redolent with race-in-America subtext as that story surely was - you know this one's plunging down the rabbit hole.

The only sad aspect of this is how ZOG's America has even taken the joy out of conning people. There are a lot of similarities between this story and THE MUSIC MAN - but one key, dispiriting difference. The town of Springfield wanted to be conned, because Prof Harold Hill made the whole community feel proud and vibrant again. [color=blue]Ol No 86 [/color]simply showed up and said, "I'se a black man in a white man's world; throw my ass a muthafun parade *right now or y'alls walk the plank like Trent Lott."

In otherwords, this was no ordinary con but a con accomplished with the Federal Govt standing right behind [color=blue]Ol No 86[/color], menacingly swinging a truncheon and grunting, "Do like he says, asshle*".

jay

2003-01-23 18:05 | User Profile

Originally posted by jay@Jan 21 2003, 17:47 ** Crapo said he planned to get to know Dawson better. After reporters left, Crapo told Dawson he wanted to travel with Dawson to his home town, Detroit, so he could better appreciate the African-American experience.

**

Mission accomplished.

-Jay

Ed Toner

2003-01-23 18:41 | User Profile

I sent this to The Boise Statesman:

Dear Editor, STATESMAN;

Regarding the NAACP leader, Wade Dawson, it must be remembered that he is rather typical of the leadership of that once fine organizartion.

Consider present day Black Leaders. Frizzell Gray AKA Kweisi Mfume, the eldest of four, Kweisi Mfume was born as Frizzell Gray in West Baltimore in 1948. His father had no contact with him at all during his life. He was raised by his mother and a step-father until 1960, when his step-dad beat up and left Mfume's mother in 1960. She would die four years later.

When the young Mfume became a teenager, he quit high school and started a career in criminality. He ran illegal numbers, was a pimp, and even managed to find time to have five children by four different mothers.

He changed his name from Frizzell Gray to Kweisi Mfume (which means "conquering son of kings" in the African language spoken by the Ibgo) .Today he has set up a cash cow for himself and the NAACP by boycotting South Carolina and ignoring real problems blacks face today.

Louis Eugene Walcott AKA Louis Farrakhan, Calypso Louie, Louis Haleem Abdul Farrakhan. The tuxedo dressed Louis Farrakhan was born as Louis Eugene Walcott on May 11, 1933. "Screwy Louie ", as he was called, was raised without a father figure present.

During his musical career, Malcom X recruited Louie into the Nation of Islam. Then Louie changed his name from Louis Eugene Walcott to Louis X. He adopted his current name of Louis Haleem Abdul Farrakhan in 1965. King Louie then abandoned his musical career for a career in hate and race hustling.

When Malcolm X was murdered, people suspected Farrakhan as being part of the murder plot but this was never proved (although today, he admits to having "some part" in the killing). Elijah Muhammad became to new leader of the Nation of Islam. The Nation of Islam's beliefs include, "separation from whites and destruction of Jews and fags."

Farrakhan's biggest publicity came on Oct 16, 1995, the day of the 200,000 man march in DC (referred erroneously as the Million Man March). His entire inspiration for the "Million Man March" is based on his alleged, "vision of being swept into a UFO that took him to a larger mother-ship." While in the UFO, he claims to have spoken to the late Elijah Muhammad before being beamed back to earth. The reason for the rally though was about money. King Louie had to find a new way to pay for his and his family's ornate palaces in Chicago and Phoenix, his Lexus, Mercedes, Rolls Royce and Lincoln Town Cars, a Mexican villa, a new 77-acre Michigan estate and over $1.5 million dollars in unpaid back taxes.

This is the reason he had an $11 registration fee for the March, a $3.99 per minute 900 number for call-in registration (Average call is three minutes), a $700 vendor's fee, (reduced from $1000), and even ads in his newspaper soliciting for "donations" to "help defray the astronomical costs of the march," in exchange for listing the donor's name and city under appropriate categories (Platinum, Gold, etc.): $1000 or more (Platinum), $500 or more (Gold), $100 or more (Silver), $25 or more (Patron) not to mention $2 "special issues" of his 'Final Call' newspaper.

In a speech given March 11, 1984, Farrakhan proclaimed, "Some white people are going to live... but God don't want them living with us. He doesn't want us mixing ourselves up with the slave master's children, whose time of doom has arrived."

This is todays black leadership. It will be interesting to see if any of this information appears on the blackboards of public school classrooms in Feb., designated as Back History Month.

For Publication

Edward J. Toner Jr. LCDR USNR Retired 481B Jason Place Brick NJ 08724 732-840-4203 captained@comcast.net

jay

2003-01-23 23:17 | User Profile

That's the kind of stuff that makes me laugh when I come here. It's the stuff I can send to my friends.

It sure seems like lately, every thread in O.D. has "Jews" in the title. Man alive, there ARE other issues out there. Right? This stuff needs to be disseminated among all "office park dads" so they can get the word out to our people. Then - and only then - will our children be taught at home what fools the NAACP are.

-Jay