Double standard

A bunch of us were sitting around the newsroom the day the TVs kept playing that image of Dianne Wilkerson lining her bra with dead presidents, and the talk turned to who else was going down, because these things never happen in isolation.

City Councilor Chuck Turner's name came up, naturally, because he was in the middle of what seems like a needlessly complicated effort to get a liquor license for the deliciously named Dejavu nightclub in Roxbury.

But the consensus among this group of hard-bitten, skeptical, if not cynical, reporters was that Turner isn't corrupt, he's nuts.

According to the FBI, you can be both.

Remember all those ridiculous things they were saying about Barack Obama, about how much of a radical kook he is? Well, with Chuck, it's all true. Except Chuck has no time for that softie Bill Ayers.

Now, while Chuck doesn't think much of the Constitution, given that it was written by a bunch of white guys who owned slaves, it does afford him certain rights, such as the presumption of innocence.

Of course, that presumption became pretty meaningless when the FBI released the grainy video showing Chuck taking a wad of cash from their informant.

Giving Chuck the benefit of the doubt, maybe he thought it was a down payment for those reparations he's always talking about. Or maybe he was just holding it for his pal, that guy who runs North Korea and looks like Roy Orbison in a cheap suit.

One thing's for sure. Chuck is going to make hay over the fact that the FBI seems intent on taking out the few elected African-American politicians in town. And he's got a point. Are you telling me the FBI can't find a white politician in this town who'll take a bribe? We all know the FBI can't find Whitey, but this is ridiculous.

And how come the feds arrested Wilkerson and Turner before they were indicted, then released incriminating photos? Funny. When the feds took out those Italians who ran the Mafia in the North End, they waited until they had indictments. And they didn't hand out embarrassing videos. Not for the first time, our local G-men showed more consideration for murderers.

The existence of a double standard doesn't mean Wilkerson and Turner are innocent. But unless the feds manage to make some white guy do the perp walk soon, this thing is going to start smelling worse than it already does.

All that said, in a day and age when an African-American is governor of the Commonwealth and an African-American was just elected president, a race-baiting politician like Chuck Turner is a dinosaur. As someone who blames racism for everything but the weather, Turner has gotten mostly a free pass from the dreaded white establishment. When he says something outrageous, such as suggesting that Sonia Chang-Díaz, the senator-elect who ousted Wilkerson, is not really a Latina, or does something even more outrageous, such as using images from a porn site to slander US troops, he is mostly ignored or laughed at when he should be formally and publicly censured. His apologists say that's just Chuck being Chuck.

Funny. When Dapper O'Neil said outrageous things, everybody wasn't so understanding. Double standards go both ways.

At least this is going to be good theater. The trial should be fun. It's going to be like watching Clark Rockefeller in a dashiki. Chuck's even hired a hippie lawyer, Barry Wilson.

Chuck will try to pull a Marion Barry, and all he needs is one juror to buy it. But while that might play in front of a Suffolk County jury, this is a federal case, and so a mostly suburban jury.

Good luck, Councilor, as you try to convince a housewife from Sudbury that The Man set you up. And to paraphrase the great Forrest Gump, sorry for wrecking your Black Panther party.

Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at cullen@globe.com.