Transparency is important these days, so in the spirit of full disclosure let me confess that I am a 62-year-old unaffiliated white man, and a card-carrying member of the NAACP. As such, I am particularly troubled by the rising trend in what I call WCBC, or “White (Cop) on Black Crime”.
2014 was marked by the shooting deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland. Both were unnecessarily killed by white police officers. In 2015, Walter Scott of North Charleston met a similar fate. And if just being black and unarmed isn’t enough of an offense, earlier this year, white cops in Los Angeles shot and killed an African-American homeless man who resisted arrest. Then, earlier this month, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile were gunned down by white cops in Baton Rouge and St.Paul respectively. In addition to the way they were killed, these victims shared something else in common—transparency regarding how they were killed.
Increasingly over the past decade, just about anyone with a cell phone can capture just about anything, and post it just about anywhere. Whether the officers who committed recent shootings knew it or not, their brutality went viral, and, in some cases almost in real time. Of course, that kind of techno transparency isn’t exactly new. In 1991, Los Angeles resident George Holliday looked out his balcony door, and saw four white police officers savagely beating a black man. Digital, mobile cell phones were not in common use back then, so Holliday grabbed his camcorder and videotaped the incident. The man being beaten was Rodney King, and despite Holliday’s video evidence of police brutality, the officers were acquitted. That miscarriage of justice sparked violent riots throughout the city in which over 50 people were killed and another 2,000 injured.
But here’s where we should acknowledge an important difference between the Rodney King era and the Black Lives Matter era. For the most part, protests and riots used to be staged after the criminal justice system had produced a verdict. Back then many African-Americans, though distrustful of police, judges, and juries, still held on to some hope that justice could still be served. After all, O.J. was acquitted in 1995 mainly because a key witness revealed himself to be a racist, and that derailed the prosecution’s case.
But today, thanks to the 24-hour news cycle, and to BLM’s ability to mobilize quickly, protestors no longer wait for grand juries or judges to even hear a case of police brutality, much less wait for a verdict. While the Sterling and Castile families were just beginning to mourn, BLM was staging protests across the nation. In Oakland they reportedly vandalized a police station, breaking glass doors and spray painting the word, “Murderers” on the building. Meanwhile protestors in Minnesota shouted “pigs in a blanket” (a call for cops to be killed). And in New York City, they chanted, “What do we want? Dead cops!”
On July 7, less than 72 hours since the Baton Rouge and St. Paul shootings, BLM took to the streets of Dallas shouting “Hands up! Don’t shoot!”, and carrying placards accusing police of being racists, and worse. The Rev. Jeff Hood, a white pastor helped to organize the BLM rally. He dressed in African garments and spewed hate speech to the crowd. “I’m going to channel Rev. Jeremiah White, and I’m going to say, ‘God d#*n White America”. He also told the protestors that police were their enemy, and that they needed to get a “fire under their (butts) and do something”. Ironically Hood and others were free to speak and march unmolested only because they were under the protection of the same officers he was unfairly indicting by association. Nevertheless, Hood’s heated remarks continued until suddenly, shots rang out from an upper deck of a parking garage. The barrage of gunfire seemed endless, and was interrupted for a time while police negotiated with 25-year-old Micah Xavier Johnson, an African-American former Army reservist who served a tour in Afghanistan. During those negotiations, Johnson told authorities that he was angry about black people being murdered by white cops, and that he wanted to kill as many white officers as possible. Negotiations eventually broke down and Johnson was killed. In the end the sniper had executed five officers and wounded seven others. At least two civilians were also wounded, including a 37-year-old African-American mother of four children.
From the moment the assault began, those same Dallas police who had been assigned to protect BLM protestors, and were forced to listen to aspersions cast upon their fellow officers, were suddenly putting their lives on the line to move the hate speaking marchers out of harm’s way. It is important to note that the Dallas PD is considered a model organization when it comes to diversity and community policing. Over 46% of the force is comprised of minorities, and the Chief himself is African-American. That begs the question, Why was Black Lives Matter marching in Dallas to protest isolated incidents in Louisiana and Minnesota? Solidarity is one thing, but protesting in a city that prides itself on excellent race relations not only seemed inappropriate, but was an insult to the men and women in blue who died protecting those very same protestors. It is even likely that the last words some of the slain officers ever heard were words of hate aimed at them. Words that stereotyped them as racists and murderers.
I’m not blaming Black Lives Matter directly for the Dallas massacre, but the kind of hate speech spewed by Rev. Hood and others certainly served to inflame and incite those who sought to protest against two recent officer related shootings in other States. It also inspired the deranged Mr. Johnson to act on his anger, which had been fueled by BLM’s inflammatory rhetoric. When asked by FOX News anchor Meghan Kelly if he regretted the language he used at the BLM rally, Rev. Hood said, “If I had it to do over again, I think I would have chose different words.” Unfortunately there are no do-overs for the five slain officers.
Today there are about 30 million blacks living in America, and their lives matter. There are also about 700,000 police officers living in America, and their lives matter too. Rodney King once asked the rhetorical question, “Can we all get along?” The answer is “Yes”, so long as we advocate for reforms that include more diversity of hiring in local police departments, implementation of more community policing programs, more thorough screening of police academy applicants, and a commitment from BLM to dial down the hate speech associated with their protests. We will never be totally safe from deranged lone gunmen, but enacting these kinds of reforms might help to diffuse the anger that torments such troubled souls. We all live under the same flag, let’s just make sure we’re not always flying it at half staff.
Black Lives Matter and the Dallas Massacre
Transparency is important these days, so in the spirit of full disclosure let me confess that I am a 62-year-old unaffiliated white man, and a card-carrying member of the NAACP. As such, I am particularly troubled by the rising trend in what I call WCBC, or “White (Cop) on Black Crime”.
2014 was marked by the shooting deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland. Both were unnecessarily killed by white police officers. In 2015, Walter Scott of North Charleston met a similar fate. And if just being black and unarmed isn’t enough of an offense, earlier this year, white cops in Los Angeles shot and killed an African-American homeless man who resisted arrest. Then, earlier this month, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile were gunned down by white cops in Baton Rouge and St.Paul respectively. In addition to the way they were killed, these victims shared something else in common—transparency regarding how they were killed.
Increasingly over the past decade, just about anyone with a cell phone can capture just about anything, and post it just about anywhere. Whether the officers who committed recent shootings knew it or not, their brutality went viral, and, in some cases almost in real time. Of course, that kind of techno transparency isn’t exactly new. In 1991, Los Angeles resident George Holliday looked out his balcony door, and saw four white police officers savagely beating a black man. Digital, mobile cell phones were not in common use back then, so Holliday grabbed his camcorder and videotaped the incident. The man being beaten was Rodney King, and despite Holliday’s video evidence of police brutality, the officers were acquitted. That miscarriage of justice sparked violent riots throughout the city in which over 50 people were killed and another 2,000 injured.
But here’s where we should acknowledge an important difference between the Rodney King era and the Black Lives Matter era. For the most part, protests and riots used to be staged after the criminal justice system had produced a verdict. Back then many African-Americans, though distrustful of police, judges, and juries, still held on to some hope that justice could still be served. After all, O.J. was acquitted in 1995 mainly because a key witness revealed himself to be a racist, and that derailed the prosecution’s case.
But today, thanks to the 24-hour news cycle, and to BLM’s ability to mobilize quickly, protestors no longer wait for grand juries or judges to even hear a case of police brutality, much less wait for a verdict. While the Sterling and Castile families were just beginning to mourn, BLM was staging protests across the nation. In Oakland they reportedly vandalized a police station, breaking glass doors and spray painting the word, “Murderers” on the building. Meanwhile protestors in Minnesota shouted “pigs in a blanket” (a call for cops to be killed). And in New York City, they chanted, “What do we want? Dead cops!”
On July 7, less than 72 hours since the Baton Rouge and St. Paul shootings, BLM took to the streets of Dallas shouting “Hands up! Don’t shoot!”, and carrying placards accusing police of being racists, and worse. The Rev. Jeff Hood, a white pastor helped to organize the BLM rally. He dressed in African garments and spewed hate speech to the crowd. “I’m going to channel Rev. Jeremiah White, and I’m going to say, ‘God d#*n White America”. He also told the protestors that police were their enemy, and that they needed to get a “fire under their (butts) and do something”. Ironically Hood and others were free to speak and march unmolested only because they were under the protection of the same officers he was unfairly indicting by association. Nevertheless, Hood’s heated remarks continued until suddenly, shots rang out from an upper deck of a parking garage. The barrage of gunfire seemed endless, and was interrupted for a time while police negotiated with 25-year-old Micah Xavier Johnson, an African-American former Army reservist who served a tour in Afghanistan. During those negotiations, Johnson told authorities that he was angry about black people being murdered by white cops, and that he wanted to kill as many white officers as possible. Negotiations eventually broke down and Johnson was killed. In the end the sniper had executed five officers and wounded seven others. At least two civilians were also wounded, including a 37-year-old African-American mother of four children.
From the moment the assault began, those same Dallas police who had been assigned to protect BLM protestors, and were forced to listen to aspersions cast upon their fellow officers, were suddenly putting their lives on the line to move the hate speaking marchers out of harm’s way. It is important to note that the Dallas PD is considered a model organization when it comes to diversity and community policing. Over 46% of the force is comprised of minorities, and the Chief himself is African-American. That begs the question, Why was Black Lives Matter marching in Dallas to protest isolated incidents in Louisiana and Minnesota? Solidarity is one thing, but protesting in a city that prides itself on excellent race relations not only seemed inappropriate, but was an insult to the men and women in blue who died protecting those very same protestors. It is even likely that the last words some of the slain officers ever heard were words of hate aimed at them. Words that stereotyped them as racists and murderers.
I’m not blaming Black Lives Matter directly for the Dallas massacre, but the kind of hate speech spewed by Rev. Hood and others certainly served to inflame and incite those who sought to protest against two recent officer related shootings in other States. It also inspired the deranged Mr. Johnson to act on his anger, which had been fueled by BLM’s inflammatory rhetoric. When asked by FOX News anchor Meghan Kelly if he regretted the language he used at the BLM rally, Rev. Hood said, “If I had it to do over again, I think I would have chose different words.” Unfortunately there are no do-overs for the five slain officers.
Today there are about 30 million blacks living in America, and their lives matter. There are also about 700,000 police officers living in America, and their lives matter too. Rodney King once asked the rhetorical question, “Can we all get along?” The answer is “Yes”, so long as we advocate for reforms that include more diversity of hiring in local police departments, implementation of more community policing programs, more thorough screening of police academy applicants, and a commitment from BLM to dial down the hate speech associated with their protests. We will never be totally safe from deranged lone gunmen, but enacting these kinds of reforms might help to diffuse the anger that torments such troubled souls. We all live under the same flag, let’s just make sure we’re not always flying it at half staff.