A Case in Point

VIEWPOINT

By RALPH HARDIN

Evening Times Editor F act: There are way too many instances in which people are being killed by the police in situations where it is very clear that lethal force was not needed and in many cases not provoked.

Fact: In reality, any number of cases higher than “zero” is too high.

Fact: In most of these cases, the person killed is Black.

Fact: In reality, no matter what race the person killed is, it shouldn’t happen and no matter what color the police officer is, they must be held accountable.

Fact: Nearly all police officers do their jobs every day, do them well and do so without incident.

There, I just gave you five quick facts and sorry (not sorry), if you disagree with any of them, you are wrong. But you can work that out on your own time. I’m here to talk about why these facts are important.

You can’t just say, “Well, if you just obey the law, you won’t get shot … or choked out … or beaten down … or, well choose your brutality.” Because that’s just not true. Unfortunately, we have seen the opposite. You also can’t just say that all of these police officers who have been involved in these fatal incidents did the wrong thing. Each case is unique. Was race an issue in some of these cases? Yes. Does that mean they all were? Of course not. This is not part of some conspiracy by law enforcement to exterminate Black people. These are not related incidents. They are, however, connected by an overarching problem in our society.

So, what is that problem? Is it racism? Well, yes … but no. Is it guns? Well, yes … but no. Is it poverty? Well, yes … but no. So, what is it?

It’s history.

Plain and simple. For (let’s just say) 400 years, there has been a fundamental belief on one level or another that there is a fundamental difference between the different races of the world. Look, I’m white. But I’ve got to tell you, I absolutely never, ever, ever think about being white. Like if you asked me to write an essay about myself, it probably wouldn’t even come up. But when it comes to being a person of color, race becomes not only a much more common self-defining trait, it’s almost a universal primary descriptor for how that person is described by others.

There are differences between the races because we created those differences. And sorry, we can not un-create them.

What can we do? Maybe nothing … especially if we continue to let the color of a person’s skin be the first thing we use to identify them and then immediately attached all our preconceived notions about “those people” into our opinion of that person. Of course, I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. Since kindergarten, we’ve been taught not to see color, right? We all know the song about Jesus loving all the little children, be they “red and yellow, black and white.” We all sat through middle school science where we learned that “we’re all the same on the inside.” We all bleed red. We all have the same organs. We all can get the same diseases. What’s the difference? Our ancestors gave us darker or lighter skin based on how close they lived to the Equator.

But we’ve gone off in so many directions. We all think our way is best. While many of us want to do away with concepts like racism and sexism and hatred of other cultures, we’ve just been so hard-wired as a society not to do that, it would take generations to undo it.

In the meantime, we’re going to continue to see incidents where people get shot and people get angry about it. But you have to at least consider the “Why not just obey the law?” argument. You can not put all of this at the feet of law enforcement.

Case in point. Last Wednesday afternoon, my daughter and I were on our way home from Walmart in West Memphis and we were driving along the Service Road there by the Extended Suites when we both noticed that cars were stopping strangely and sort of pulling over in a way that it was clear it wasn’t just traffic.

It was then that we noticed a shirtless Black man, wearing only track pants, walking backward down the middle of the road with his arms held out like some kind of moonwalking Jesus. All the cars were giving him a wide berth. A few seconds later, we saw that he was being pursued by a trio of West Memphis police officers. It wasn’t a chase exactly, because the guy wasn’t running and they weren’t really trying to grab him. I don’t know what the guy did but the police definitely wanted to get him into custody.

As we were passing, they did finally catch up to him and had him on the ground, cuffing him. By the time we got to the red light, he was back on his feet and being escorted out of traffic. Compliance? No. Arrested? Yes. No one was shot and no one died.

That’s how it should work.