Where Mercy Is Shown, Mercy Is Given - Duane Dog Chapman [66]
In the beginning, my heart was bursting with tears of pain, but now I am filled with tears of joy for the opportunities I’ve had and the changes I’ve been able to make since the story broke. My new role gave me the responsibility of being a racial healer for our country. I was a changed man with a higher purpose.
The strangest part of the Apology Tour was that of all the people I shook hands with and met along the way, I found myself constantly surprised at how merciful the African-American community was, while the white community remained angry and unforgiving for what I had said. There was even a white supremacy group that was angry with me for apologizing for my careless slip.
In early 2008, I received a call from a well-known member of the KKK asking me to come to Texas to give a speech for their group at an upcoming meeting. I told the man who called me that I couldn’t do it.
“You know me, bro. I’m not like that,” I said.
He pleaded with me that I had an opportunity to use the situation to help lots of people who feel the way the Klan does.
“A lot of us are sick of it, Dog. We are sick of the crime, the assaults, all of it.”
I was getting angry listening to him talk. I said, “You think white men don’t commit the same crimes? I see it every day, brother.”
Not long after that call I read an article on the Internet that said there was a $75,000 bounty on my head because I didn’t promote white pride. I have spent my entire life knowing there is always going to be the presence of good and evil in this world. Evil can come in many forms, such as negativity, discontent, or plain stupidity. Believe me, those forces are almost as strong as the good. There were a lot of thoughts going through my mind when I read that article.
I said, “Come and get me!” after I finished reading the last word. I dared anyone to try to get my badge. I wasn’t raised to give evil forces the power to win. I learned to go with the good because it always prevails. Some people will never understand that. They never gamble on doing the right thing. They see a crime going down and think, If I get out to help that person, the bad guys will come after me, too. Or If I get involved in this robbery, they’re going to shoot me.
Me…I say, “Me and you, right now. Let’s go.” That’s the old fighter in me.
So when I was confronted by a white supremacist from the Aryan Nations after a public appearance, about why I didn’t stand up for what I’d said, the first thing I thought was I could rip this guy in half.
I remembered the Aryan guys I knew in the joint. I couldn’t go around with them for two reasons: first, because of my friendship with Whitaker, and second, because I didn’t support their way of thinking.
I looked the muscle-bound, tatted Aryan thug up and down while he was spewing his racist thoughts and knew I could take him for sure. Because I am in the public eye, physical confrontations are no longer my thing. But you can believe I got pretty vocal with that guy. He could tell he was going down the wrong path with me. I got right in his face and told him I didn’t care what his homies thought, I was not a racist and I didn’t think he should say the hateful things that were coming out of his mouth either. By the end of our twenty-minute dialogue, this poor fool was apologizing to me and asking for free Dog the Bounty Hunter T-shirts.
I started bawling after he walked away. I was stunned that I was able to turn his twisted thoughts around. I raised my hands in the air and said, “Thank you, Lord.”
One down and, sadly, too many left to go.
CHAPTER 13
(credit: Chaz)
Although I was slowly mending fences in the African-American