Ferguson, Mo., is a suburb of St. Louis which has grown from a White community to a 65 percent Black community, yet the police force is made up of approximately 52 White officers and three Black officers, with most living outside the city. Are you listening Pittsburgh? Mayor Bill Peduto?
Cities throughout the country, large and small, with large Black populations are not committed to diversity. Since affirmative action was killed, they have stopped hiring men like Captain Ron Johnson. These men are being blocked somewhere in the process and we must find the source and eliminate it, he, she or them. I think the bottom line is racism.
Captain Ron Johnson is the captain of the Missouri State Police who the governor sent to Ferguson to stop the street confrontations between the police and citizens of Ferguson. And he did just that. Why? Because he’s a Black man who grew up in Ferguson who understands the people and police respect him. This allowed him to be able to walk and talk with the people in the streets as well as the police. Maybe the creators of the tests or criteria that determine who is qualified to be a police officer need to take a good close look at the performance of Captain Johnson and ask themselves whether race matters. Yes it does. And you can’t tell me there are no well-qualified young Black men and women out there. Being a police officer is not like being a rocket scientist. Oh, by the way we do have Black rocket scientists.
The Pittsburgh FOP and FOPs throughout this country need to take a close look at the Ferguson incidents and realize that diversity will minimize these types of situations, because you get officers who are from the community and city. You get White officers who are working side by side of Black officers who are putting their lives on the line just like them. This gives both races the opportunity to see the other as just another human being, instead of us vs. them.
The turning of the city from White to Black also led to most of the officers no longer living in the city. Whites moved further out when the Blacks from St. Louis started moving into Ferguson.
Another thing that bothered me was the burning and looting of the stores down the strip where Brown allegedly stole the cigars, and assaulted the employee. Many of the business owners said the police did nothing to stop it.
This becomes a double-edged sword. Blacks, especially Black males are complaining about the lack of jobs, yet we burn down or destroy the small businesses that are providing the jobs. For some reason we just don’t understand the importance of businesses in our communities. They are lifelines. Yet we only see them as a place to steal from or to drive past on our way to the suburbs. Not many of us look to start up a business in our community. Now I don’t know if these were Black owned or White owned, or Asian owned businesses but I do know they had to have had Black employees who are now out of jobs, and these businesses provided services to the community because people spend their money there.
I would love to see a mass nonviolent march or street protests throughout this country against violence in the Black community focused on Black on Black street violence, police violence, and domestic violence covered by the National Mass Media. For every one police shooting, there are hundreds of Blacks being shot by other Blacks in which most of the country just accepts. You don’t see the same outrage. I would like to know the rate per year in Ferguson of Black on Black shootings. I know it’s extremely high in St. Louis, and East St. Louis is like a war zone. Aren’t these young people just as dead? Aren’t their lives just as important? Why isn’t someone speaking out or protesting for them too?
A lot of police departments are purchasing car cameras and or body cameras, which records all stops. They all should invest in body cameras, including Pittsburgh. It would have helped in this situation.
I’m just sayin’ we need to look at this issue from all sides and angles.
(Ulish Carter is the managing editor of the New Pittsburgh Courier.)
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