Picture a man. A good man. The father
of 4 kids and a loving wife. A man who gets up in the morning and
goes to work. Finishes work and goes home. Day in and day out. Living
his life like any other man. But, he isn't any other man. He is a
black man in America. He is a large black man in America.
One day, after work, he gets in his
van and starts for home. But, his van stops in the middle of the road
on his way. For what ever reason, he doesn't push it off the road.
Maybe it's the transmission. Maybe its just too heavy a van. Or,
maybe helps arrives before he gets a chance. Either way, he is a
large black man with a van stalled in the middle of the road and a
police car comes up behind him. Help has arrived.
He begins to walk towards the police
car, grateful that it has arrived. I tiny white woman, all alone,
steps out of the car as he approaches. She pulls her weapon out and
asks him to stop coming towards her. He is stunned. He puts his hands
high in the air and says “don't shoot me. I just need help”.
She tells him to turn around and go
back to his van until help arrives. She follows behind him with her
gun trained on him and he can't believe this is happening to him. He
gets a little mad. Frustration at his situation at being stuck in the
middle of the road was bad enough. Now he is in fear for his life and
he is feeling the anxiety of his situation when another police car
arrives.
He thinks it will all be better now.
Then a policeman pulls his taser and points it at him. He give him
some orders but the man is now in disbelief at how he is being
treated and he asks why. Maybe he even gets a little defiant. Who can
blame him. Here he is, his van broken down on the road and all of a
sudden guns are pointed at him and police are talking to him as if he
is some kind of criminal for looking to them for help. Then he hears
the pop pop. The taser followed by the gunshot. It takes a moment for
him to realize he has been shot. Perhaps the taser even keeps him
from really realizing it.
And there in the street, with no one
around but those who should have been his salvation, he dies. Alone
and confused and bewildered and then dead.
Picture a woman. A good woman. With a
family that loves her. She goes to work every day. And goes home at
the end of her shift. Just another working woman. But, she isn't just
another working woman. She is one of the women who puts on the
uniform and sets out everyday to do some good in the world. A world
that is increasingly hostile to her and those in the uniform. Still,
she wants to do good. To be good.
A call come in on the radio of a
stalled car in the middle of the road. She takes the call and heads
to the scene. When she arrives, she is met with a scenario that she
has been trained for. She is alone and being approached by a large
black man.
Recent stories of ambushes and police
shootings are fresh in her mind. Perhaps her fear makes her react
just a little too cautiously. She draws her weapon and tells the man
to stop where he is, turn around and head back to the van. He
responds that his van has stopped and he was just looking for
assistance. Dialogue goes back and forth as she waits for another
squad car to arrive. She has already set in motion an escalation of
the situation.
More officers arrive and seeing her
with her firearm drawn, assume a defensive posture of subduing a
suspect. The suspect is not cooperative and the officers are quick, a
little too quick, to pull the trigger on a taser. But he doesn't know
that the woman beside him is so scared, that she doesn't even realize
her finger is on the trigger. She is so scared, that the pop of the
taser startles her and she jerks. She is so scared that, in that
moment, she pulls the trigger and shoots an unarmed, large black man,
dead in the street.
All of her training. All of the news
reports. All of the incidents of the last few months have led her to
a place where she simply couldn't trust herself in a situation with
alone with a large black man. She isn't a racist. She had no desire
to do harm to any other human being. She was simply programmed and
sent out into the streets with the exact training necessary to
survive and encounter with a large black man.
What do you think Black Lives Matter
has added to this scenario? The videos and the outrage was bringing
this problem to light. Then a group comes along and advocates for
violence against the police. Then the police are ambushed in Dallas.
Then they are ambushed in New Orleans. And now, whenever they are in
a position to confront a large black man, with a van stopped in the
middle of the road, they will respond with fear and caution, and a
callous disregard for the emotional state of a frustrated and angry
man.
A man is dead. A twin sister has lost
her brother. Four children have lost their father. A scared little
white woman has ended her life as she knew it. She will never be the
same for her family. A fellow police officer has joined her in her
fear and has set off a chain of events that has altered the coarse of
every life involved. And now, every black person in America knows
they have a reason for their fear of the police.
Perhaps we could have come back from
all of the other shootings. There were circumstances with most of
them. But this one. This one cannot be explained away. This one
cannot be unseen and undone. There is no way to tell a black man that
the police are his friends. He will always have to be afraid whenever
he needs help, to call the police. Maybe it has been that way for a
while. I have heard it said. But, today, I see it and I feel it and I
do not know if there is any way that we can fix it.
I understand the police having a fear
of being attacked by black people. I understand black people being
afraid of the police. In fear is a terrible place to exist. When fear
is so well founded, how do you overcome it??????????????
