"'I will not sit in judgment of anyone who reaches out to a family in crisis — period. If I felt compelled to respond to every radio personality who took issue with the city, that would become all consuming, and there is simply too much work to be done.
"'The job of Dr. Davis is to help me do my job, especially in matters of community enrichment, codes, housing and business assistance,' Foster said. 'As far as I am concerned, all parties involved are performing their jobs at a very high level.'"
Davis adds that one reason he felt compelled to attend the Lacy funeral was because there was the possibility that Christine Lacy, Hydra's wife, was thinking of attending the ceremony – against the wishes of the rest of the Lacy clan — and he wanted to be there to insure that the affair didn't get ugly (she ultimately did not attend).
Then, in the wake of the slaying of officer David Crawford weeks later, the issue came up again: another police funeral. Go Davis was adamant that he would not attend (though again he did attend the wake of the officer to pay his respects). He offered to "man" City Hall, as most of the city staff would be at the event. His superior, Tish Elston, advised a compromise, through which he could be out in front of the funeral site, but he didn't want to do that, either.
Davis then went directly to speak with Foster about why he would not attend, but the two kept on missing each other. Davis says Foster called him on a personal phone line instead of his city number (he had given him the personal line during the political campaign).
In any event, Davis failed to appear at Crawford's funeral on March 1. Foster called him into his office on March 2 and fired him.
On March 4, Davis held his now-infamous news conference at the Enoch Davis Center, an event that included loads of his supporters and was broadcast live on Bay News 9 — infamous because it seemed to freak out much of the establishment media when Omali Yeshitela was given the opportunity to address the crowd. (St. Petersburg Times political editor Adam Smith tweeted, ""Go Davis wants to feature Omali Yeshitela at his presser? Really?")
But Davis says that neither the appearance of Yeshitela nor that of NAACP chair Rev. Manuel Sykes was planned. As he took questions from reporters, he received separate notes requesting that both men wanted to address the crowd, and Davis' comments afterwards — that if he hadn't already been fired before the Uhuru chairman spoke, "I would be after that" — seems to indicate that it wasn't premeditated. Though Davis also doesn't believe there was anything inflammatory said at the podium. "What he said was, 'This man got fired because he stood up for the community.'"
On WTSP Channel 10, Bubba the Love Sponge erupted in his weekly commentary segment the following week, admonishing Davis to "Take that race card that you're trying to play, shine it up really nice my friend, and shove it somewhere!" (Bubba declined CL's request for comment.)
Some of Davis' supporters say that Foster crumbled under the pressures of the Police Benevolent Association, who were not happy with Davis' absence from the funerals, and that of other critics, like Bubba. And for those who valued Davis' government role, especially regarding Midtown, the question is: Now what?
The NAACP's Sykes was one of a group of people who met with Mayor Foster in March to discuss items for Midtown moving forward. He says that "there needs to be a specific initiative," but not necessarily a specific person to continue the development of Midtown.
And what about race relations in the city? The lone black member on the council, Wengay Newton, claims the way that Foster handled Davis at the end "set us back 10 years" in terms of race relations. His colleague on the council, chairman Jim Kennedy, back in January proposed asking the nonprofit group Community Tampa Bay to help form and run meetings to discuss racial issues. (The council approved that in early March.) Kennedy says, "You need to look deeply at our region, our town, our housing patterns that developed that have led us to where we have a very segregated housing base."
Yes, the city of St. Petersburg still has issues. But will Go Davis continue to be one of them?
Perhaps. Currently, he's involved in an initiative to try to bring more charter schools to St. Pete as a means of trying to close the achievement gap among black youth there. He professes no desire to run for political office.
