Preconceptions: Final judgment and protests should only come with facts

It is ironic that hundreds of protesters clogged the Durham Freeway Friday night and that a similar crowd blocked student access to a campus building at the University of North Carolina earlier in the week.

Not because they did not have the right to gather or that they did not have the right to ask questions about the role of police in modern society. That is part of being an American.

What is so interesting about these protests is that those who gathered have already made a judgment, not with facts, testimony and eyewitness accounts, but with their own preconceptions.

There might be reason to discuss the behavior of police and the way officers react to crime scenes and suspect encounters -- and maybe even a concern that perhaps, maybe, sometimes, some might even be too quick to read danger and to act with deadly force. But to address this issue honestly, one has to look at more than a couple variables.

The truth is that very few encounters with police end in death for minority youth and potential suspects. The question really is, what would have happened if the encounter in New York had been with a white man with the same circumstances? Would there have been a different outcome? Unlikely.

The case in Ferguson, Mo., also has a question -- what should an officer do when he is threatened by a suspect and has injuries from where he was attacked. How does he judge in a split second what to do and how to protect his own life? The last question also applies to the Cleveland case as well -- you are looking down the barrel of what you think is a gun, you have seconds to decide. What do you do?

The loss of life is never easy -- and there should be questions. Police procedures should be reviewed, as should cases involving anything that even resembles racism or brutality. Neither should be tolerated from any person who has sworn to uphold the law. And departments in every city across the United States should be vigilant, aggressive -- and public -- about how they handle such actions.

We should also make sure that we have procedures in place to allow potential victims to feel comfortable about reporting alleged abuse of power and we should protect the rights of those who might have been victimized.

But we have another obligation, too. We have to respect the process and to acknowledge that sometimes we might not have all the facts -- and that, perhaps, those who did got it right. And we have to be careful how we throw around the word "racism." That term should come with evidence -- and should be dealt with immediately and decisively -- to send the message that it will not be tolerated, ever.

But we have to do more than that if we really want to address this issue. We have to talk about the other part of this equation.

The same night that the protesters were blocking a major thoroughfare in Durham -- one that is the gateway to one of the area's trauma centers -- in another part of the city a young man lost his life in a hail of gunfire.

He is one of the many victims we read about in the news, not just in Durham, but in cities across the country -- even here.

He was not killed by police and if we do not acknowledge the fact that hundreds of black youths lose their chance at a future every day because of this sort of violence, we are not ever going to make a dent in the unnecessary loss of life.

Solve the police problem, if there is one, quick. Educate forces, update procedures and get rid of those who have forgotten that to protect and serve means ALL the people.

If you do, you will end less than 2 percent of deaths of black men in this country.

The other 98 percent is what we should be worried about and talking about -- if what we are trying to accomplish is saving young lives.

If we are looking for another reason to start a race war, we can call it profiling, we can hurl insults at all officers for the questionable actions of some, we can even draw ridiculous conclusions about what happens in our own community just to keep the fires hot.

But that is not the responsible way and that is not what is right.

We need honest discussion, real information and cool heads. We need to listen to each other and to meet the issue head-on.

That is how you overcome prejudice, ignorance and barriers. And that, and nothing less, is what we should demand from our police, our leaders and ourselves.

Published in Editorials on December 8, 2014 12:23 PM