Lessons to be learned from Ferguson

What lessons have we learned from Ferguson, Mo.? And how can we avoid a similar situation in the Mahoning Valley?

This is what I’ve learned thus far. An unarmed Michael Brown was shot multiple times by police officer Darren Wilson. Brown was black; Wilson is white.

Ferguson is a predominantly black community; the majority of the town’s officials and leaders are white.

I’ve learned that both police and the community overreacted to the shooting. Ferguson’s streets came close to resembling those in the Gaza Strip in the Middle East.

I learned that withholding information for a prolonged period of time from the media and the public is never a good idea. Such action fans the flames of distrust and gives the impression there is a cover-up.

I learned that common sense continues to be overruled by emotions. Does it make sense to destroy and loot established businesses in your community? Are trained police officers not able to discern peaceful, lawful protesters from thugs seeking to deliberately cause trouble?

I also learned there still remains a great gulf that needs to be bridged between the black community — especially black men — and the police.

For some reason, incidents involving the shooting or arrest of black men by law enforcement continue to rise.

Eric Garner, 43, an unarmed black man from New York, died in July when an officer put him in a chokehold after a dispute with police after he was accused of selling cigarettes illegally. The New York Police Department does not permit the chokehold.

We read about the black television producer wrongfully arrested and jailed a short time in Beverly Hills late last month.

Charles Belk, a 51-year-old college graduate, was paying a parking meter in the swank California community when police arrested him and had him in jail for six hours. They said he fit the description of a black bank robber they were looking for.

Belk, who was unarmed, said police denied him the right to make a phone call, never read him his rights and never explained why he was being detained.

The police later apologized, but never explained why Belk was denied his constitutional rights.

Certainly we should not forget the death of Amadou Diallo, also unarmed, who was killed in February 1999 in a hail of 41 bullets fired by four police officers in the Bronx. He was struck 19 times, according to a CNN news story dealing with the topic of police attacks against unarmed black men after Brown’s death in Missouri.

These are the celebrated cases that generated headlines. I wonder, however, how many of these injustices go unreported?

I have had to talk to my son about how to talk to police when he is pulled over, and he will eventually be pulled over.

I gave him a pamphlet to keep in his car published by Youngstown’s Black Knights Police Association. It was given to me by Delphine Baldwin-Casey, now retired from the city police department.

The pamphlet gives an overview of what to say if you are stopped by police in your car, when police come knocking at your door, and if you are stopped by police on the street.

It concludes with these three important points to remember:

If the police have stopped you, they think they have reason to do so.

It is best to be calm and identify yourself.

In many situations, you can talk your way into jail just as well as you can talk yourself out of jail. By yelling or threatening a police officer, the best you can do is get yourself arrested, and who needs that?

The NAACP has a similar guide to interacting with police. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s guide reminds its readers “while we must support effective law enforcement, we must also exercise our constitutional rights to ensure law enforcement works as it should — to protect all Americans regardless of race or ethnicity.”

I wonder if the Caucasian segment of our society has a similar pamphlet that is given to their children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

I am not painting all police with the broad brush of discrimination and brutality. I have close friends who are in law enforcement. I realize that police work and the edict to protect and to serve are demanding.

But certainly there has to be some ongoing dialogue between the black community and law enforcement to reduce or eliminate these incidents and prevent something like Ferguson happening here.

Toward that end, I will moderate a community forum Sept. 30, sponsored by ACTION (Alliance for Congregational Transformation Influencing Our Neighborhoods), the Black Knights Police Association and the Community Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV), called “What to do if you’re stopped by the police.”

It will take place from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Metro Assembly Church, 2530 South Ave., and will be hosted by church pastor Al Yanno.

Scheduled to speak are Baldwin-Casey, city police representatives, Black Knights representatives and Guy Burney, coordinator of CIRV.

I urge you to come out and participate. As a community, we must admit we have a responsibility not to exacerbate the situation when police stop us. We also need to know our rights and what the police can — and can’t do — during those stops.

Finally, we also need to protest just as strongly to end black-on-black crime. I don’t recall seeing many organized protests calling for an end to that violence, especially in big cities such as Chicago and Detroit.

Ernie Brown Jr., a regional editor at The Vindicator, writes a monthly minority-affairs column. Contact him at ebrown@vindy.com