A Dark Place

 

While searching for local stories in my Twitter feed, I found these two stories back to back.

Former Howard County public works employee awarded nearly $1 million in racial harassment trial, Penelope Blackwell, Baltimore Banner

Howard County man admits threatening LGBTQ group, Maryland lawmaker in court, Pamela Wood, Baltimore Banner

Yikes. 

I read about the racial harassment suit as the trial began and found myself wondering what it would have been like to be in Darrell Fletcher’s shoes. This is the situation he walked into as a new employee.

In 2017, an outside investigator contracted by the Howard County Department of County Administration concluded that racial discrimination had been part of the culture of the bureau for “numerous years” after 23 people had been interviewed, the report shows.

The report also described a “clique” of employees within the bureau that consisted of white males, with the exception of one Black man. They identified as the “Carroll County Boys” and exercised “fear and power over other employees who believe they cannot do anything about the group.”

It makes me both angry and sad to read how Fletcher was treated in what is essentially a division of Howard County Government. You can be a qualified Black man and be hired - - even promoted - - but there’s no guarantee that your work environment won’t be toxic and outright dangerous. To add insult to injury, because of the way his termination was handled, he couldn’t get decent work references for his time in the department of public works. It is really hard to get a good job without current references.

Fletcher won his case. There is a monetary award. That doesn’t undo how he was treated or the impact on his well-being. Nor does it mean that the toxic work environment in the Department of Public Works has been remediated. I hope it has. One might imagine that a lawsuit like this would be a rather expensive wake-up call. 

Moving on, the second article tells the story of Adam Michael Nettina of West Friendship, who repeatedly sent violent threats by telephone and e-mail to several political candidates and to the offices of the Human Rights Campaign. 

Here’s what Nettina’s attorney Joseph Murtha  said:

Nettina’s attorney, Joseph Murtha, issued a statement to the website Maryland Matters: “Mr. Nettina found himself in a dark place in his life at the time of the voicemail that he left. He has accepted responsibility for his actions, and regrets that it happened. At no time did he ever intend to harm anyone.”

Here’s what Nettina actually said in those telephone messages:

We’ll cut your throats. We’ll put a bullet in your head … You’re going to kill us? We’re going to kill you ten times more in full.

Nettina sent harassing threats to Baltimore County candidate Nick Allen, “calling him a ‘baby killing terrorist’ and claiming he would get Allen excommunicated from the Catholic Church for expressing support for transgender people.” Later on, he used these words:

Enjoy hell You’re going sooner than you think.

In an email to another lawmaker from Virginia:

Nettina called the lawmaker a terrorist and said “You deserve to be shot and hung in the streets. You want to come after people? Let’s go bitch.”

Now go back and read attorney Murtha’s statement. It defies credulity.

Nettina’s attorney, Joseph Murtha, issued a statement to the website Maryland Matters: “Mr. Nettina found himself in a dark place in his life at the time of the voicemail that he left. He has accepted responsibility for his actions, and regrets that it happened. At no time did he ever intend to harm anyone.”

I, too, have found myself in a dark place in my life and I have never expressed myself like this. Mental health issues do not make you like this. Perhaps they make it less possible to mask who you truly are? 

Words and actions show Nettina for who he truly is: both hateful and, at the very least, vocally violent. Who’s to know how that hate and violence will be expressed against members of the  LGBTQ+ community and people who defend them? The news is full of this kind of hatred that explodes into violence and murder.

These two stories reveal people who are legitimately are going through dark places: Darrell Fletcher at the Department of Public Works, who wanted to be given a fair chance to succeed in his job, and advocates for members of the LGBTQ+ community who are willing to publicly take a stand to protect those who are vulnerable. The world looks pretty dark for people like them these days.

These are wins in court but those wins don’t erase the hurt and the fear left in the wake of harassment and abuse. 

I have no patience for people who say that this kind of thing doesn’t happen in Howard County.