To say that there has not been a historical conflict between law enforcement and the black community in the United States is to bury your head in the sand. History has created a distrust between both sides, and the divide doesn’t appear to be getting any better due to recent news.
But, the problem – in my view – can be resolved very simply by teaching our children (black, white, yellow, red, pink) the very basic rule of respecting authority. When an officer tells you to stop, you stop. When an officer tells you to go to the ground, you go to the ground. When an officer tells you to shut up, you shut up.
No matter your color, you greatly increase your chances of getting hurt whenever you fail to follow the instructions of law enforcement. And, in the era of civil litigation and improving race relations among the general populace, the civil litigation process is more than adequate to handle violations of civil rights.
As an attorney, I would recommend that you at least give me a chance to fight for you while you’re still alive.
Here are some recent deaths that resulted from someone resisting arrest:
1) Cesar Cepeda, 27, wielded axe at officer while resisting arrest, hispanic, October 2014
http://www.kveo.com/news/man-brownsville-shot-and-killed-after-resisting-arrest
2) Robert Cameron Redus, San Antonio, TX, student, shot in back resisting arrest, unarmed, white, 11/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/robert-cameron-redus/
3) Cody Dempsey, 25, Ohio, September, 2014, resisting arrest, white
http://wkbn.com/2014/09/26/police-and-suspect-exchange-gunfire-along-route-11/
4) Joseph Lee, 32, Indiana, September, 2014, resists arrest while officers try to serve arrest warrant, white
http://www.elkharttruth.com/news/crime-fire-courts/2014/09/24/Joseph-Lee-had-long-criminal-history-in-Indiana.html
And, lastly…
5) 2009, Pastor Jonathan Ayers (a white man) was killed when officers perceived he was resisting arrest
It turns out that the Pastor was helping an indigent woman. It could be that the Pastor was frazzled because he may have been having relations with the woman; whatever the motivation, when he was approached by cops, he tried to drive away, striking an officer, resulting in the officers shooting him fatally.
The grand jury determined that the shooting was justified.
Notwithstanding, a jury awarded the Pastor’s wife over 2 million dollars in the subsequent wrongful death suit.
The moral I am hoping to promote is that we should stop focusing on the race issue, here… but instead work on teaching our children to not resist arrest… and, most importantly, pray for more peace and understanding! At the foot of the cross, we can all find victory no matter what your color.
Your thoughts?
I absolutely agree with you. I also believe that police departments need to retrain their officers to resist their urge to use lethal force. Both sides need to learn respect and patience.