Harry Lee (sheriff) - Background

Background

Lee died five days after returning from M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston for his latest round of treatment for leukemia.

His death came less than three weeks before he hoped to win an eighth term in office. Lee had qualified to run in the October 20 primary against Harahan Police Chief Peter Dale and contractor Julio Castillo. State law requires qualifying to reopen if a candidate dies before the election is held.

Lee was re-elected regularly by huge margins even as he managed to become embroiled in controversy. Defying every notion of political good sense, he unabashedly - and often indelicately - took stands considered taboo by most politicians. His shoot-from-the-hip style often made his closest advisers cringe even as it endeared him to voters.

"I think people like me because I do a good job and because I tell it like it is", he once said. "If you ask me something, I'll give you an answer, straight up. People may not like it, but I'm not going to sugarcoat it."

One of Mr. Lee's most famous assaults on political sensibilities came in 1986 when he ordered his deputies, in the wake of a suburban crime spree, to stop black men for no reason other than driving "rinky-dink cars" in predominantly white neighborhoods. The order, later rescinded, prompted calls for his immediate resignation and landed him in the national news. Years later, he said he really didn't understand what all the fuss was about and blamed the news media for blowing his order - which he called "good police practice" - out of proportion.