I had planned on avoiding writing about this topic, but I
read a blog post from a friend of mine that made me rethink my stance and my
reasons for not writing about the situation. I will delve into that blog post
at the end of this post.
I want to start by saying that I am not going to make any
statements about the specific police action that led to the shooting of the
unarmed teenager. There are many great articles that cover this aspect of the
story well and I don’t have much to add, but I do want to say some things about
police in general.
This shooting comes weeks after the shooting death of a
police officer here in the Twin Cities. The shooting rightly led to outrage and
outpouring of sympathy across the state towards the police officer, his family
and the department that he was a part of. There was a great funeral procession
with over 4,000 officers from across Minnesota and some neighboring states.
This was right and good and important.
I think when we hear about situations of police abuse, or we
feel like we have been treating wrongly (even for minor things), we often
forget the situations that police officers put themselves in to protect and
serve the community, and to do the societal dirty work that often occurs without
much knowledge of much of the rest of the community. They do this while wearing
uniforms that put a target upon them and perhaps with the knowledge that they
are really, truly putting their lives on the line each day they go to work.
This basic fact cannot be repeated enough, clearly deserves our respect, and
will put me in a position of generally giving police officers the benefit of
the doubt. The are human beings, in stressful situations, facing uncertain
dangers, trying to protect the community, so they indeed deserve plenty of
leeway.
That said, there are aspects of the Ferguson situation that
should be extremely distressing for people in this country as we consider what
is happening.
First, it has been confirmed that Michael Brown, the
teenager who was killed, was unarmed and was shot 6 times at a not super close
range (known by the lack of gunpowder residue on his body). While admitting we
do not know all the details of the incident, and wanting to give police
officers proper leeway as they do their job, this seems excessive, and it is
unclear what the situation would be that would require this many shots. I do
hope these facts are further clarified.
Second, the police department was slow to release the name
of the officer involved in the shooting, and the officer in question has more
or less fled the area. I suspect these actions were done to protect the safety
of the officer, but they are problematic on many fronts, but one that I want to
go into a little deeper.
Police (and military) have a monopoly on the use of
legitimate force. This is necessary for them to properly and safely do their
jobs and to protect the citizens under their care. With the monopoly of
legitimate force comes certain responsibilities, most notably accountability of
their actions. If they are forced to use force in the line of duty, there has
to be a proper and transparent review of their actions. This is what allows for
police to maintain the trust of the community in regards to the monopoly on the
use of legitimate force.
Again, details of the actual encounter are uncertain, so I
am not even saying the police officer was wrong, but there needed to be a
better reaction than instantly getting into the mode of protection and cover
up. If the trust of legitimate force is violated it makes it much more unsafe
for citizens and for police officers and leads to other problems.
Police have the right to use deadly force to protect
innocent lives (themselves included) and in some cases to stop a specific type
of criminal from fleeing. The second part depends on jurisdiction and certain
circumstances that were not present in this case (ie Michael Brown did not
commit a serious enough offense). However, it is quite possible the police
officer in question felt threatened enough to use deadly force to protect his
life. But this story needs to get out. It should not lead to my next point:
Thirdly, the police released a video of Michael Brown just
prior to the shooting where it appeared likely that he stole some cigars from a
convenience store and was a little rough with the store clerk. This means that
Michael Brown was perhaps a petty thief. However, the person with Michael Brown
was not charged with anything, and, most importantly, the police officer who
shot Michael Brown was not aware of a potential robbery when he first
encountered Michael Brown. This video was released to smear Michael Brown, not
to shed any additional light on the encounter between Michael Brown and the
police officer that resulted in his death.
All of this has lead to the images that we have seen over
the past several days, of the encounters between the police and the protestors.
Many people have been very critical of the methods used by the police in these
situations, that they have escalated a situation through their tactics. One of
the best accounts I saw was a series of tweets by veterans on the tactics of
the police, seen here:
The general theme is that the police has too much
military-style stuff without the appropriate training to use it properly, nor
the correct tactics for the situation. I would generally agree with this, and
the militarization of the police is a huge issue that will need to be addressed
by our country (but would require much more writing for me to cover at the
moment).
This whole situation is disgraceful and embarrassing for our
country, and should give us all pause at the least. I don’t think this is the
type of police presence we want, that our communities look like they could be
in Ukraine or Iraq. We certainly deserve better.
One idea that has struck me is the thought that this
shouldn’t happen in America, with the response being THIS IS AMERICA. At least
for people in the black community as they encounter a majority white police
force. I am going to link to two great articles that will provide some context
for the situation and explain it much better than I could ever hope to.
This provides some context on past racial tensions in the
area.
This is a long read on the case for reparations. I am not
especially interested in digging into reparations, but reading the article
provides some important context for the historical and systematic injustices
that black Americans have faced in the time period long after slavery. It
provides some context for how we as a country have gotten to the point. Again,
don’t get hung up on reparations, but consider the stories that the other
shares.
All this brings me to the final part that I want to mention,
and the reason that I decided to write about this topic, a blog post written by
a friend of mine from Seminary, Edrin Williams, about the situation in Ferguson.
Edrin starts by mentioning recent events that have led to
his call for more cross-cultural dialogue among Christians. These include some
recent deaths of individuals at the hands of police officers, as well as a
strange case that was recently decided in Florida. The challenge that Edrin
lays out is that in response to these events, it is time for White Evangelicals
to stop being silent, absent and evasive and to speak up for issues of justice,
specifically racial justice within this country.
Edrin gives four main reasons why he thinks White
Evangelicals have been more or less silent around these issues:
First is fear – this is indeed a treacherous area for white
people to go. As he says, anything that is said has the potential to “set
things off” and lead to accusations instead of productive dialogue.
I have felt this myself in some dialogues at Bethel. I tried
to engage in some conversations, with more a push back attitude, and I soon
found that it wasn’t going to fly. It was difficult to have those types of
conversations on such an emotional topic in a more public setting without
having some sorts of problem arise. I soon felt, rightly or wrongly, that there
was a narrow scope in which to talk about these issues that wouldn’t cause any
waves. Or the other option was just to remain silent. In the public dialogue we
certainly see this as well. They are either ignored, talked about in a narrow
scope, or people who get outside those boundaries find themselves stepping on
land mines they never intended to.
Second is perceived lack of skills – white people don’t have
the verbal skills or experiences to properly talk about these issues, so it is
easier to be silent.
This is certainly true as well, especially on the experience
aspect. I can try to be empathetic to the situation of the people in Ferguson
or those in a similar situation, but the reality is my life is much different.
It is difficult for me to speak intelligently on this issue.
Third, and related, is distance – the difficulty in
understanding the day to day realities of Michael Brown and his family and how
they are different than our day to day realities.
Related to the last point, and again makes a proper
understanding difficult. The fact is is that in my daily life I just don’t face
the systematically prejudiced institutions that others face, how can I properly
speak to them?
Fourth is unresolved guilt – taking a long look at the
historic, systemic roots of racism and injustice based on race in this country,
including the church.
Guilt is indeed a strong wrong. Perhaps it is better to
think of it as ignorance. As someone who came of age after the most public
aspect of the civil rights struggle and being shielded from it in most of my
life by virtue of where I live it is just not something that is constantly on
my radar. Much of the conversation seems to lead towards loaded words like privilege,
and I would also argue that it leads to conversations that go beyond and miss
some of the fundamental points that are still addressed.
Another aspect, in my mind, is that there is a sense of
struggle for many people in this country already. We don’t need to look far to
see middle class Americans being squeezed, job problems, wars, all kinds of
things. Investing too much thought and concern into racial issues becomes
emotionally and intellectually exhausting, especially when it is not something
that is encountered very often. I suppose that truly is what my privilege is in
regards to race – because of who I am I don’t need to have the burden of the
historical and systemic roots of racism if I so choose to ignore it.
However, it doesn’t take a very radical theology to know
that Evangelical Christians need to be aware and be a part of the struggle and
the solution. We are called to improve our corrupt institutions, even if, or
perhaps especially if, it is hard.
I am not sure what the next step is and what that might look
like, I certainly hope to return to this topic again and again. But for now, I
will choose not to be silent, even if it is in such a small way.
