America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s

Officer Claiborne T. Callahan of Alexandria, Virginia, appears in America on Fire as the quintessential “bad apple” police officer. Callahan joined the Alexandria police force at age 24, and the incident that earned him his place in Hinton’s book happened nine years later, when he was 33. Although Callahan is something of a “villain,” Hinton humanizes him by mentioning details of his life: He worked as a Hollywood stunt double in his early thirties, he taught flying lessons. Neither Callahan nor his chief of police, Russell Hawes, viewed him as a bad or racist cop, only as someone who got “a little rough sometimes” (122) in the process of doing his job. Callahan claimed not to treat Black suspects any differently than white suspects, insisting, “I’ve had more trouble with white people than black people” (130).

In spite of this, Callahan had had multiple prior incidents with the Black residents of Alexandria, and was viewed as a “bad apple” by most. One Black mother admitted she was reluctant to let her children play outside when he was around, because “the minute he gets mad with one of them he thinks he can step in and beat the child” (127). When Black teenagers confronted Callahan about his terminology, Callahan said he didn’t understand why “colored people got so upset when someone called them colored” (123), and refused to listen when the teenagers attempted to explain that it was a matter of respect. Ironically, being addressed in a disrespectful way is exactly what would cause Callahan to eventually overreact and try to arrest a Black teenager.

The incident that caused rebellion in Alexandria began with Callahan breaking up a football game out in the streets around 10:30 pm. Although this event in itself did not elicit any violence, it still shows Callahan interfering in an innocent game that, had the players been white, he might not have interrupted. This recalls Hinton’s statement in Chapter 1 that rebellions were often sparked when “law enforcement meddled […] in ordinary, everyday activity […] and failed to extend to residents the common courtesies afforded to whites” (20), such as not addressing them with terms they found disrespectful. Even this behavior, Hinton suggests, marks Callahan as a “bad apple.”

After the football game had dispersed, Callahan went to a McDonald’s parking lot, and heard a passing teenager cursing. Thinking the teenager had cursed at him, Callahan decided to place the boy under arrest. When the teenager ran, Callahan chased him down and arrested him, prompting bystanders to attack by allegedly “throwing bottles and bricks” (126). Fourteen-year-old Keith Strickland, one of the bystanders, was severely beaten by Callahan, who later claimed that Strickland had hit him with a two-by-four. Strickland’s mother and another man were also injured in the process of trying to stop the violence.

Afterward, the public demanded that both Callahan and Chief Hawes resign, and when it became clear that Callahan would face no consequences for assaulting children, violence broke out around Alexandria. However, while the Black residents rebelled in outrage, several white residents—mostly business owners and members of law enforcement—praised Callahan as a hero and argued that his actions had been completely justified. Hinton’s account suggests that Callahan’s actions, if not consciously motivated by racism, were still motivated by a desire to keep Black people “in their place.” He chose to place a teenager under arrest merely because he thought the boy had cursed at him, a very mild show of disrespect that should not have warranted such an extreme reaction. The violence that followed in Alexandria was an inevitable result of Callahan’s unnecessary use of force against a child, exemplifying the kinds of contentious police encounters that would spark cycles of violence all throughout America.