Why is it that when the police injure or kill someone the police release everything that they can find that is bad about the person that was injured or killed but refuse to release available video tapes or anything about the officer(s) that injured or killed that person?  That is exactly what happens far too often in America and that is exactly what is happening in the case in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where a police officer shot and killed Sylville Smith.  Is there any wonder why citizens around the country are having problems with trusting the police; police who are supposed to protect and serve them?

And what about the politicians that we elect to represent all of us?  Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin is the one who decides whether or not the video tapes that captured what happened during this shooting will be released.  Up to this point, he has opted not to release them.  Why?  That remains to be determined.

What he did do, however, was activate the National Guard.  In light of this and the current efforts that many of our elected officials are making to obstruct or completely block American citizens’ right to vote, we need to ask ourselves how those that we elect to represent us actually view us.  Is it like lofty lords sitting in high places looking down upon us like we are a bunch of little irritating ants scurrying around that they feel no compelling need to squash but no real need for except during their election cycles so they tolerate us: And even then, not all of us but only those of us who look and think like them and who will vote for them?

We have a policing problem in America and have had for a long time now.  It does not matter that Sylville Smith was black and that the policeman who shot and killed him is black!  And by the way, the fact that the policeman who shot and killed Sylville Smith is black is about the only information that the police have released concerning this policeman and the shooting.  That is likely because the police and those politicians linked to this incident felt that this would be beneficial to them.  What really matters is that the police and the communities that they are supposed to protect and serve do not trust each other and that what is happening in police departments in Milwaukee and around the country is not conducive to correcting that problem.

I have written and posted many articles to this blog before stating that it will take courageous police officers who are willing to break the so called ‘blue code’ or whatever other name that cops might apply to not ratting out other cops even when they are abusing their authority whether or not it involves deadly force, to even begin to reconcile police and those whom they police.  But this can be done and healing can take place.

What we in communities throughout America must realize is that we too have a part to play in this reconciliation effort.  We must step up and stand up for what is right, and support our police officers, no matter how unpopular it might be, when they are in the right.  We are in a situation in America right now that can be somewhat associated with the proverbial question “what came first, the chicken or the egg?  In other words, should citizens who have long been treated unfairly by unscrupulous police officers while their fellow ‘good’ police officers stood by, for the sake of preserving the ‘blue code’, and winked at them abusing their authority be responsible for initiating what needs to be done to bring about this reconciliation or should the police departments be responsible?

I do not believe that the solution lies in a definitive ‘citizens’ or ‘the police’ answer.  Instead, it lies in the courage of one person no matter who that one person might be, to take that first step.  Report that cop who is abusing their authority to their superior officer and push things as far as they must be pushed or, if faced with roadblocks, as far as you can push them.  A citizen should support that police officer if they are in the right no matter how unpopular it might be.  And they should also do their part in applying and keeping pressure on those politicians who can and should do something about the policing problems in America.  If violating the ‘blue code’ and going outside of the popular thing to do happens simultaneously, so much the better; but it must happen either way if America’s policing problem is to be solved.

I don’t know which side will prove to be justified in the recent shooting and killing of this black man by the police in Wisconsin.  Neither do I know how things will ultimately turn out with respect to the choice between staying with the status quo or making an effort to begin the healing between the police and those whom they protect and serve.  But I do know which of the two choices that I hold out hope for and that choice is the beginning of healing.  Because without healing, any perceived progress is nothing more than a mirage.

Eulus Dennis – author, Operation Rubik’s Cube and Living Between The Line