For the family of Berkeley, Mo. resident Antonio Martin, 18, it will be a day of grief. Martin was killed after a confrontation with police during which the officer who shot Martin accuse him of pointing a gun at him.
More than four months after 18-year-old Michael Brown’s shooting death turned the otherwise little-known St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Mo. into a household word and inflamed racial tensions, St. Louis County police are once again drawing national scrutiny. Officer Darren Wilson may not have been indicted in Brown’s death, but protests have made headlines and fault lines between people who argue that police are abusing their powers and those who assert that police wouldn’t have to be in a position to be accused of brutality if people obeyed the law have become more pronounced.
Tensions have gotten so heated that an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released just the other day reported that 57 percent of Americans believe race relations in the country are poor. Twenty-three percent said relations are “very bad,” the highest number since October 1995 when a majority-black jury declared O.J. Simpson not guilty in the murder of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
Protestors have decried police tactics and the militarization of police units around the country, including people who wore T-shirts bearing the words, “I can’t breathe” to protest the choking death of Eric Garner. Some police have taken part in counter-protests and worn shirts that have said, “breathe easy. Don’t break the law.”
That’s bad enough because it shows insensitivity to people who are grieving. Regardless of whether Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Martin or 12-year-old Tamir Rice, gunned down Nov. 22 for pointing a toy gun at a police officer were at fault or had any responsibility for what happened, it’s a direct insult to people who are grieving and those who support them.
To make matters worse, police demands that the National Football League and the St. Louis Rams extract apologies for a protest where five Rams took the field at Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis making a “hands up, don’t shoot” gesture. The NFL rightly refused to apologize for or discipline the players.
Police demanded that the Cleveland Browns apologize for and discipline wide receiver Andrew Hawkins for wearing a shirt to protest Rice’s death. Hawkins responded all right, but didn’t apologize.
“Justice shouldn’t warrant an apology,” he wrote.
It’s bad enough that some police choose to antagonize people in grief. It’s even worse that they demand apologize for people exercising their rights of freedom of expression. When once police officer wrote a blog post entitled, “Today I Stopped Caring,” it only served to inflame tensions even more.
“Today, I stopped caring about my fellow man. I stopped caring about my community, my neighbors, and those I serve. I stopped caring today because a once noble profession has become despised, hated, distrusted, and mostly unwanted,” the post began.
Instead of taking the time to evaluate all sides, including people who broke laws and people who abused the authority symbolized by their badges, the post blamed parents who “refuse to teach their kids right from wrong and blame us when they are caught breaking the law,” among others. I’ll admit that as soon as the writer wrote, “I stopped caring today because Liberals hate the police as we carry guns, scare kids, and take away their drugs,” he or she lost me completely. Even though the post later blamed conservatives for hating them because “we are the government,” the post served to do nothing to heal the great divide. It only reinforces it.
Many police out there do great things, including Larry DePrimo, who dropped $100-plus on a pair of boots for a barefoot homeless man two years ago. I consider one or two police officers friends of mine. But instances of police brutality exist, and must be addressed effectively. Lawbreakers need to be dealt with effectively, and the punishment should fit the crime.
More importantly, however, these events that have cast a dark shadow on race relations in this country are proof positive that we need to tackle the roots of the problem. Passing laws won’t necessarily solve the problems. Electing an African-American to the White House hasn’t eliminated racism. What’s needed is a long term cooperative solution that demonstrates respect on all sides.
An old song by Traffic singer Dave Mason called “We Just Disagree” might be a good place for us to start, as the chorus talks about not declaring either side to be wrong or right.
“So let’s leave it alone/Cause we can’t see eye to eye/There ain’t no good guy/There ain’t no bad guy/There’s only you and me and we just disagree.”
Come to think of it, we all could use the lessons from that song.
