Commercial Appeal - Guest Column: Healing Begins with Equal Enforcement of Laws
The grand jury’s decision not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, was bitterly disappointing to many whose fervent hope is to see all Americans treated with dignity and equality under our laws. Brown’s death is a tragedy that cannot be denied. His devastated family understandably feels they did not receive justice.
Americans who fail to understand the enormous nationwide reaction to the killing of Brown must understand the larger picture. Although America has made progress in the past 50 years, passing important civil rights laws, we are far from where we should be in how those laws are applied. The distrust that many African-Americans feel toward the criminal justice system is, unfortunately, justifiable.
The long road that leads to Ferguson is paved with the brutal lynching of Emmett Till, the beating of Rodney King, the shooting of Trayvon Martin and, just days before the Ferguson shooting, the death of John Crawford III, who was killed by a police officer inside a Wal-Mart despite video footage clearly showing that he posed no threat. There are countless other similar incidents that have not received much, if any, attention from the media but which are well known among African-Americans. In addition, it is a sad truth that African-Americans face disproportionate arrests, are more likely to be prosecuted and are given harsher sentences than their white counterparts.
Every person, regardless of race, should feel confident in the fairness of our criminal justice system. But for too long it has been repeatedly demonstrated to African-Americans, particularly young African-American males, that their encounters with the criminal justice system may well result in racial discrimination and injustice.
What occurred in Ferguson after the grand jury’s decision, and in protests across our nation, is the expression of years of distrust of the criminal justice system among African-Americans. However, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. advocated, violence is never the answer. I join with President Barack Obama and U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., in calling for peaceful actions from both the protesters and law enforcement to move our nation forward.
Our challenge as a nation is to repair the relationship between African-Americans and those in positions of authority and to ensure that all Americans, regardless of race, have faith that they will be treated equally under the law. While it is a difficult challenge, it must be met head-on and with a clear eye.
Much of what occurs in the criminal justice system is under the purview of local authorities. They must decide whether to institute police review boards, whether to install cameras on officers, what sort of training to provide to law enforcement and prosecutors, which cases to prosecute and what sentences to seek in those cases. Too often, these important decisions receive short shrift and citizens should hold their elected officials accountable.
There is also much work that can be done from the federal level and I will continue to pursue justice with laws on sentencing reform, police profiling, and ensuring that federal monies going to local law enforcement are appropriately used. I will also continue to urge Obama to commute the sentences of those who have received disparate prison sentences because of the color of their skin. Our laws must not only be equal on the books; they must be enforced in an equal manner. America will never fully heal until that dream is realized.