Support for unarmed black shooting victims and cops are not mutually exclusive

NDG’s View

When there is an injustice, justice must always be met on both sides. Unfortunately, in the Black community, justice is only seemingly delivered when a police officer is involved. Over the past three years, the real identity of America has been revealed to the world. Leaving Black communities across America rocked to their cores. Repeatedly, videos and news headlines showing White police officers take shoot first, ask questions later to the next level. The community continues to watch unarmed Black boys and men gunned down.

Public outcry, civil unrest, and protest became the moniker of the community, even across the world. However,  police departments remained silent. Until on a Thursday night in downtown Dallas when a lone sniper, Micah Johnson, shot 14 police officers, killing five. Two shooting victims were civilians.

First and foremost, the North Dallas Gazette does not condone the actions of  Johnson.  We do, however, support our living and fallen officers. But we must ask why can’t public officials – including police department across America – publicly reach out to the grieving families to condemn the action of rogue police officers who caused this mess? Why do only the police officers receive the support and love, but not the families who lost their loved ones at the hands of police officers who abused their power to protect?   There can be no real atonement and reconciliations without acknowledging the pain inflicted on the African American families by bad cops. Far too many times everyone has watched the news and made too many demands for change. Frequently calling for change addressing the cops who are abusing their civil duties to protect and serve. Within weeks or even days, another unarmed man is shot.

For example,  an unarmed Black man in Miami was on his back holding hands extended in the air saying “don’t shoot” before he was in fact shot. All too often fatal shots are flushing out black lives. With no validity. No cause.

Then to add insult to injury, these victims are criminalized through the mainstream media as if on trial for being murdered. Then the real victim’s families feel called upon to defend their loved one’s reputation, while they grieve their loss. This media coverage and social media speculation leave family tormented even further. No continual public apology is offered. Meanwhile, the fallen officers are decorated and remembered in vast dedications and valor, while Black families are left holding the bag.

In the death of Philando Castile, a 4-year-old girl was placed in the back of a police car after witnessing the death of her mother’s boyfriend. Then she had to bear the responsibility of consoling her grieving mother. The same happened in Baton Rouge, La., when a 15-year-old son was left to console his grieving mother.

Certainly, no one advocates denying the officers due process. But in this age of social media, the public is far more aware of these incidences of police shootings. Many times the reports include a video of the encounters. After watching it unfold, following an investigation the public remains disappointed. Not a single officer received an indictment. With a continual lack of justice in the courtroom, concerned citizens are left to turn to the streets to demand justice. But we cannot forget our other tool: the ballot box.

The silence is deafening

In the famous words of Dr. Martin Luther King, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

With all due respect to Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, State Senator Royce West and  police associations across America, your words are tone deaf without a public apology and outright condemnation of cops shooting and killing of Black citizens in America. When was the last time you heard a police department publicly condemn one of its own for the unnecessary killing of a citizen?

Black parents spend many restless nights worrying about the safety of their children. The easiest response is, “Teach them how to act.” But what if we have, but the officers lack training or have a racial bias or both? Then what? Does that mean your cops still are right to treat us unfairly?

Any healing process must include officers speaking out on what sometimes feels like open hunting season on people of color. It would go a long way to helping the community feel heard and understood if other elected officials followed the lead of Minnesota’s Governor Mark Dayton.

Dayton stepped outside of his comfort zone and called the tragedy in Minnesota for what it was: racism and murder. Why are we not offering the Dayton more public support and why has his voice faded away? Our community should applaud his efforts and lend our support to him. No elected official is perfect, but he stood up and spoke an uncomfortable truth –  – and will likely pay political consequences for it unless we demonstrate he has our support.

Where will our leaders take us?

Now, what is the city of Dallas going to do, Mayor Rawlings? You pledged to tackle the issues of racial division. You have called on our society to take on and seek justice in cases where police officers behave in unlawful ways against citizens. At the same time, you are asking the community to support “the 99 percent of good officers” who do their jobs well. We agree, but we also believe it should start by weeding out the wrongdoers, regardless of race.

“We can address this issue,” West said. “We don’t need to continue to be divided. Past generations have addressed issues of divisiveness in this country and in this world and were successful. Our generation must now step up, stop talking the talk, and walk the walk.”

To you State Senator  West, what are you going to do? You believe that it’s time to end the talk and begin the walk, right?

Sounds good, Senator West, a good start is when the 2017 Texas legislative session kicks off What laws will you put on the agenda to address our concerns? Will you address better testing and screening to identify rogue cops who perhaps are more inclined to shoot first and ask questions later, as we witnessed in Miami earlier this month?

West can we address the secret grand jury process which behind closed doors, unidentified to the public, men and women continually let these police officers go? Is it not the time to put a face on the members of these proceedings?  At the very least we could dialog with them learn more of how they arrived at decisions which we so vehemently disagree. If the public saw at least a few of these cops face a jury of their peers, the frustrations would not run so deep and would likely serve as a deterrent. The continual lack of judicial accountability has weakened our faith that we are participating in a fair game.

Who will step forward and encourage not only dialogue, because talk is cheap? We want real action on these issues. Or will those who ask questions continue to be villainized for not supporting the police officers? We believe it is possible to support absolutely the police who put their lives on the line to protect us daily. But in a free society, do we have the right to acknowledge there must be change when we clearly see a broken system?

What steps are we taking now?