'Why Me?'

In his 2021 book "Good Cop, Black Cop: Guilty Until Proven Innocent (A Memoir)," retired Fostoria police sergeant Clayton Moore recalled three times when he cried out to God while fighting his dismissal from the force. He'll recall those instances and more on Tuesday when he presents "Why Me?" as the speaker for Bluffton University's annual Martin Luther King Jr. Forum. Moore's talk is scheduled for 11 a.m., at Bluffton's Yoder Recital Hall. It is free and open to the public. Moore said his being named as the forum's speaker evolved from a talk he delivered at Arcadia United Methodist Church -- one of a number he's done in support of the book. The actual Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday this year is scheduled for Monday. It honors the famed civil rights leader of the 1960s. "Anytime you're connected to anything the late Dr. Martin Luther King has done, to celebrate and commemorate him, it's an honor," Moore said. "I'm just humbled by it -- tremendously humbled by it." Moore was the first Black officer hired into the Fostoria Police Department in 1986. His dismissal for alleged "conduct unbecoming an officer" came in 2008, but Moore challenged it and won, with an arbitrator harshly ruling against the city. He served 10 more years on the police force before retiring. He was the department's "Officer Friendly" for a time, and he's continued to work with Fostoria's youth, including as an assistant football coach and as the current head softball coach at Fostoria High School. Moore said three characters of admiration for him are King, once-exiled boxer Muhammad Ali and biblical figure Moses. "At no time do I put myself in the same realm as those guys," he said. "But I can relate to those three so much. They've always been three men who I've been fascinated with. The things they went through -- I'm sure they cried out and said, 'Why me?' And they had to stand up on the principles they believed in. They didn't have a lot of people backing them. They had a lot of people telling them they were wrong. Just the courage and the strength they had, to stand on principle and stand on their faith, was just incredible." Moore said being asked to speak in relation to King is "something I don't take lightly." "He's a world figure, and the impact he left, not just on the United States but on the world, is second to none," he said. "I'm just hoping that I go and I do him justice and I don't do anything that's short of giving him reverence. I won't be so much speaking on him, but things that I've gone through, I will correlate in comparison to some of the things he went through -- although what I went through during my time at the PD amounts to beans compared to what he went through as far as civil rights. But, just a correlation of being mistreated and lied on and having charges brought against you falsely is what I'll be speaking on."