Buffalo Wiggins and Charlie Gessert

Or

How to Screw Up a New Mayor’s First Day

It had been a dirty, long political campaign but I prevailed with 72% of the vote and began the task of assembling an administration.  According to State Statutes, the municipal elections are held on the first Tuesday of April and the new Mayor is sworn in at noon on the third Tuesday of April.  There is supposed to be a cordial transition with the gavel being handed over in a gentlemanly ritual.  In this case I considered it almost barbaric because of the rancor of the campaign.

I had two weeks to select my appointees and conjure up enough votes on the council for confirmation, lay out a consolidated and rational description of what my administration would accomplish and convince the vanquished “other side” that I was NOT the devil incarnate.

The rest of the world didn’t care much about my little problems.  Life went on as usual in the rest of the City   Only a few nerds cared much about who was getting sworn in or what that would actually mean for them personally.  Likewise, and unfortunately, the normal activities also included elements of alcoholism, racism and stupidity.  All three came together with horrible results.

The Sunday before my oath was to be taken, in a rancid bar on the east side of town, a Native American by the name of Buffalo Wiggins and a white man by the name of Charlie Gessert confronted each other in a drunken belligerence.  As the story goes, the insults flew hot and heavy and when an altercation became imminent, the bar tender told them to “take it outside”.  They did.  They went to the vacant lot next to the bar to settle their differences physically.

The story differs here depending on whether you were a friend of Gessert or Wiggins.  The only thing that is consistent is that at some point during the fight, Gessert slugged Wiggins and knocked Wiggins unconscious.  Wiggins died.  Apparently, he had strangled to death on his own vomit.  The police and ambulance were called and Gessert was eventually arrested.

I saw the story in the newspaper on Monday but didn’t pay much attention to it until I got a phone call from the Chief of Police.  He informed me that the death had essentially torn the scab off of unhealed racial relations and thought that there would be issues to deal with shortly.  I thanked him for the “head’s up” and went about my business.

My wife stood beside me at noon the next day while I took the oath of office to an almost deserted city hall.  I took her home, grabbed my briefcase and set about preparing for my first Council Meeting as Mayor which would take place at 7 o’clock. 

The Chief of Police interrupted my preparations and told me we had serious problems and he would need my help.  It seems that since early that morning there had been three “guns drawn” incidents between members of the tribe and the police department.  There were reports from the Sheriff’s Department of tribal members heading towards the City with guns

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But that wasn’t all.  The Police Department had intercepted cars with white men inside, with guns, driving around town looking for members of the tribe.

This was all new to me.  Quite frankly I was worried.  I had no idea what powers either the Chief or I had to diffuse the situation but I knew eventually one or both of us would have to do something.  At the moment, I only asked the Chief to keep me informed and let me know what needed to be done from the Administrative/Political side.

Sometime around 3 PM, the Chief came back to the office and closed the door.  There was another incident.  Police received a call that there was a person with a gun in another bar on the far east side, and a car was dispatched.  Another officer thought the call was rather unusual so he proceeded  to the site.  When he got there the first officer was already inside the bar but there was a man with a rifle leaning on the car aiming at the door of the bar.  The second office confronted the man with his weapon drawn and radioed  for help from the officer inside the bar.  They arrested the man with the rifle.

The Chief said he had discussed the situation with “authorities”  (meaning the County Sheriff, I think) and recommended that we take emergency action.  The action was based on the theory that we could only control those elements we had jurisdiction over, meaning the City, through a declaration of an emergency within the City but any help we could get from the Tribe would be strictly voluntary and of good will.

On our end we could control alcohol but had no legal authority to control guns or ammunition.  We could declare an emergency and shut  down the bars because we had licensing authority over them but we could only ask for voluntary compliance from gun and ammunition dealers because they were State or Federally licensed.  I would have to draft a declaration of emergency and get it distributed to the taverns/bars and likewise a copy of the letter would be given to the firearm dealers.

The Chief provided me with a template (which I assume he got from the City Attorney) and I had the Deputy Clerk type it and make copies of the signed document.  It shut the bars down at 6 PM and asked for voluntary shutting  down  of the firearm dealers at the same time.

One of the Sergeants on the Police Department was Native American and had a good relation with the tribal leadership.  He told us that the tribe was really angry because Gessert  had not been charged with murder and it was hard to keep the anger spreading throughout the tribe.  He felt I would need to talk with the Tribal Chairman.  I arranged for a phone call and with two police officers standing at the foot of my desk, I had to act like a real Mayor for the first time in my life.

I started off by telling the Chairman that I regretted that we had to have our first discussion this way but I wanted him to know that I would do everything in my power to keep the incident from spreading any further.  He assured me that he was doing the same.  On his end, he said that he had talked to the Wiggins family and they had agreed to ask the Tribal Members to respect Buffalo and refrain from taking any actions that would disgrace his name.  They asked for a week of mourning.  I told the Chairman I appreciated that and I would rely on justice to take its course.  We ended the call.

 The crisis was over for a while, at least until the trial.

I went to my meeting a 7 and didn’t mention a word about the day’s events.  My Council President knew everything just from hanging around at bars but he declined to say anything either.  The public never knew about all the details or the role of City Hall in keeping things under control.