DL EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Dave McBride Publicly Pushed For The Restoration Of The Whipping Post In Delaware
Publicly, as in nationally-syndicated TV. Specifically the Morton Downey, Jr. Show back in 1989. But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, the story, which had remained in the recesses of my brain until I read this article today. and it had a mind-meld mash-up with Black Lives Matter. A brief excerpt will suffice:
But in the decades before, it was an anchor to bind people – most often Black people –to be lashed across their bare backs for sometimes petty criminal offenses in the last state to reject the cruelty of such punishment.
On Wednesday, workers took a jackhammer to the eight-foot concrete post – considered, by some, a monument for government-sanctioned brutality – plucking it from its spot in the town’s celebrated center to be tucked away in a state warehouse.
Delaware was the last state to outlaw the whipping post–in 1972. Then-Gov. Russell Peterson had consigned the three whipping posts (one at each county prison) to mothballs in 1969. In 1972, the General Assembly passed a sweeping reform of the criminal justice code, thus officially outlawing the use of the whipping post.
Now for the story. The year was 1989. I was one of the Administrative Assistants for the Delaware State Senate Majority Caucus. The most racist members of the General Assembly and the Attorney General’s office got together to promote truly draconian expansions of Delaware’s drug penalties. The Senate Created the ‘Senate Committee To Combat Drug Abuse’, and put the most conservative members (and staff) on it. One of the ringleaders, Sen. Majority Leader Tom Sharp, pushed for, I’m not making this up, the reintroduction of the whipping post in Delaware. It’s right here in this article. Check out this quote from Sharp, and remember, this was 1989:
Senate Majority Leader Thomas Sharp, D-Pinecrest, said the public humiliation of a whipping would be a deterrent to drug crimes.
‘It’s too serious of a crime not to consider some kind of corporal punishment,’ said Sharp. Asked if a whipping would be in addition to a prison sentence, he said, ‘Hell yes. Put them in prison and whip them, too.’
That got the attention of the producers for the Morton Downey Jr. Show. Downey was a particularly noxious right-wing asshole who was the logical descendant of early UHF nutjobs Joe Pyne (Wilmington’s own!) and Alan Burke.
As for Downey:
Downey headed to Secaucus, New Jersey, where his highly controversial television program The Morton Downey Jr. Show was taped. Starting as a local program on New York-New Jersey superstation WWOR-TV in October 1987, it expanded into national syndication in early 1988. The program featured screaming matches among Downey, his guests, and audience members. Using a large silver bowl for an ashtray, he would chainsmoke during the show and blow smoke in his guests’ faces. Downey’s fans became known as “Loudmouths,” patterned after the studio lecterns decorated with gaping cartoon mouths, from which Downey’s guests would go head-to-head against each other on their respective issues.
Downey’s signature phrases “pablum puking liberal” (in reference to left-liberals) and “zip it!” briefly enjoyed some popularity in the contemporary vernacular. He particularly enjoyed making his guests angry with each other, which on a few occasions resulted in physical confrontations.
Tom Sharp wanted no part of this. He had no time for circuses. And little time for public speaking. But, he had a guy, a self-promoting guy who was all too willing to make Tom Sharp’s case for the whipping post on the Morton Downey Jr. Show, which was then being taped at superstation WWOR in Secaucus, NJ. That guy was Sen. Dave McBride, and he indeed went on the show and made the case for bringing back the whipping post. I know. I made all the travel and logistical arrangements (including dinner reservations), and, as dictated by Sen. McBride, I wrote a ‘thank-you’ letter to the producer, emphasizing McBride’s willingness to wax rhapsodic on any topic of the producer’s choosing. It was perhaps the most fawning and obsequious correspondence I had ever written on behalf of one of my bosses. In other words, it was really funny. It was too late for Dave’s return, though. By June of 1989, Downey’s 15 minutes of fame were over and the show was cancelled.
Since I started writing this post, my sleuth daughter discovered that McBride indeed appeared on a 1989 episode entitled “DUI And Unusual Punishment”, with McBride as the proponent for the whipping post, the ‘unusual punishment’. And a press release, probably written by me, previewed his appearance, and was picked up in the local media. If you have a subscription to newspapers.com, you can read all the stories in 1989 about McBride’s celebration of the whipping post and appearance on the show.
McBride didn’t only publicly support the whipping post bill (SB 60, 136th General Assembly), but he was the prime sponsor that same year of a draconian drug bill that established minimum mandatory prison time for second offenders. He consistently supported the entire package that led to the incarceration of a disproportionate number of minorities under the canard of ‘combating drug abuse’.
The whipping post wasn’t funny then, only 17 years after the state had finally outlawed it, and it’s not funny now. I am well aware that this post could be politically incendiary.
However, I would not have written this if I didn’t believe that every word is/was true. I wrote it because, in 2020, I believe that constituents in SD 13 deserve to know that their State Senator once made a public spectacle of himself on behalf of the restoration of public whipping. The public whipping of predominantly Black people.
68% of people whipped were African Americans, a group that was only 20% of the population.
This is as brazenly racist as you can get.
Remember this era well, also remember this was not the only professed love of the whipping post in Delaware’s congress, as in “if we brought back the whipping post this would not happen”. As noted this is the same bunch that gave us mass incarceration and packed prisons. Gee…… Thanks.
So let’s call this what it is, McBride’s brazenly racist push to restore the whipping of Black Delawareans. Full stop.
Why get rid of the whipping post? It’s a supposed deterrent. So just move it to the local state police hq and when another cop beats/kills an unarmed black man they are tied and whipped.
Now’s as good a time as any to remind everyone that Marie Pinkney, who is an extraordinary person, is running in a primary against McBride. She is deeply committed to her constituents, she gave one of the best candidate presentations I ever heard, and she EVEN LIVES IN THE DISTRICT!
Here’s her bio, and you will note that there’s a donate button right there:
http://marieforsenate.com/about-marie/
Yes! Marie Pinkney is a fabulous candidate who will truly serve her senate district. Extremely well-versed in the health care system also.
I am thrilled to see that quite a few readers have clicked on Marie’s site.
That ‘Donate’ button is right there.
Donate, volunteer. Should Marie win, it would mark a sea change in the Senate Democratic Caucus. A sea change for progressive causes.
Get the video
http://www.mortondowneyjrshow.com/contact.html
Uh, you can’t order videos from that website.
Any other bright ideas? Do you disbelieve the story?
Don’t disbelieve. They might have the archives.
They don’t. Whoever owns WWOR now might. It’s undergone quite a few changes over the years:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWOR-TV
Fun Morton Downey Jr. fact: Before moving to Secaucus and hosting the TV show that made him famous, Downey had a radio talk show in Sacramento, Calif. He told a joke about a “Chinaman” on the air that angered the city’s sizable Asian community and was fired when he refused to apologize.
He was replaced by a guy named Rush Limbaugh.
We are in a time of crisis and experience matters. What fiscal responsibilities has Marie had? How many teams has she led? Where is her executive and legislative experience? She’s completely inexperienced and we’ve seen the result of inexperience. I refuse to select a candidate because she’s a woman of color, whose credentials are lacking. It’s been 31 years and I can say with certainty, McBride has absolutely evolved and if that’s in question, do your research.
People should live in the district they seek to represent.
If by fiscal experience you mean she doesn’t have experience protecting corporations that don’t need the help, I agree. Ive had it with that kind of experience.
I’d rather have someone who “understands the struggles facing many Delawareans.”
Someone who “knows the school-to-prison pipeline and how it must change…. and knows how health insurance impacts treatment outcomes.”
McBride lives in a mansion in Lewes, while Marie works alongside working class families who need community-based resources and better insurance coverage. Which “experience” is more valuable?
As Pro-Tem, McBride’s experience has consisted of burying gun control bills he had pledged to bring to the floor, burying minimum wage legislation, enabling the ongoing ethical malfeasance of his Number 2, Nicole Poore, and discouraging prospective D challenges to Colin Bonini and, yes, Anthony DelCollo. That’s just for starters.
The last thing we need is someone experienced in perpetuating the casual corruption of the Delaware Way. And that’s what McBride has become in his waning days.
Oh, Candis, one more thing, I WORKED for McBride for some twenty years, and I’ve written about McBride and the entire General Assembly since 2009. You don’t think I’ve done my research? I’ve done it every single day that the General Assembly has been in session. I’ve seen a guy who was a constituent service obsessive back in the day evolve into an absentee senator. Who, yes, supported the return of the whipping post to be used against predominantly black Delawareans.
Let him evolve on his own fucking time. It’s time to cashier this do-nothing piece of shit. Thirty-one years of pocket-lining and kissing up to authority. Defeated? I hope the old fuckstick drops dead.
You’re miserable and clearly dead inside to wish death upon another. Seek professional assistance quickly before our hurt yourself or someone else
Why? Withered old shithead has been fucking over the state for years.
You can drop dead too, you wimpy little puke. Fuck off.
Well, I like Dave McBride. I know it may not seem that way from the article. But I do, he was even at our wedding.
I just wish him good health and happiness in what should be his retirement.
Yes, you like Harris McDowell, too. Useless old fucks, both of them. Good riddance to both.
How close to Tom Sharp’s house is McBride’s Sussex house? Tom Sharp was the worst piece of shit I ever encountered in 35 years of Delaware journalism, and McBride sucked up to him for years. That’s not a good guy, and I wish him neither health nor happiness.
And before our concern troll shits his panties, wishing someone dead doesn’t do a thing to kill them.
The night before his first election he put out a hit piece with the following false allegations toward his opponent :
That the opponent did not live in the district.
That the opponent was a tax evader under IRS investigation.
Than the FBI was investigating the opponent for taking a bribe.
I was there I saw the piece !
McBride can rot in hell!
#1 I’m a Supporter of Senator McBride and in the 20 years that I have lived in The 13th District I have always Voted for Him
#2 If Ms. Pinkney somehow happens to win I will throw my support over to her and work with her in every way possible
#3 I honestly don’t see the need for the Editor’s Attempt to try to pigeonhole Senator McBride’s tenure as a State Legislator into 1 failed piece of Legislation 31 years ago. The People in The 13th District know who David McBride is any repeatedly Vote for him to return to office
#4 In regards to any Legislation passed in The late 80’s early 90’s. I’m old enough to remember every one back than ran on “Law and Order Agenda” it didn’t matter if you were State Senator or US Senator
#5 I’m old enough to remember that Crime was rampant not just here in Delaware but though out the Nation and everyone demand that drastic measures be taken and yes the ill-advised idea of bringing back the whipping post was brought up
#6 In hindsight (and I have this argument with my 20 year old son all the time) I’m grateful that our Legislators took dramatic actions to curb the violence that plaque our State and Nation
Finally I Don’t like voting on Social Issues because I’m basis in so many ways. I literally vote with my wallet and I truly believe that Senator McBride is The Best Person to bring Economic Development to State of Delaware so that everyone can have Social Mobility in this Day and Age!!!
This my personal opinion and on September 15th I will walk out of voting booth with a clear conscience that I made the right choice again by voting to re-elect Senator McBride
I respect your decision, but I’m dismayed by your attitude about the supposed rampant crime of the period in question. If you think the laws you approve of did anything more than greatly increase our prison expenditures, I believe you’re mistaken.
I respect your decision as well. But the passage of the draconian legislation that Senator McBride supported (and Sen. Biden made possible) was driven by the exploitation of racial tensions. At the time, it was good politics for so-called Reagan Democrats, but it was disastrous public policy that we still haven’t fully overturned.
We still have cops stealing stuff, and we still have cops, right here in Delaware, beating and even killing Delawareans who pose no threat, and facing no consequences for their actions.
“ Senator McBride is The Best Person to bring Economic Development to State of Delaware so that everyone can have Social Mobility in this Day and Age!!!”
Poor chap.