Aim to Build Communities of Hope
What we have seen across the nation is the frustration of people who feel the American promise of equal justice, independence, and opportunity do not exist for them. Good people of good will and good faith must work together to address the inequities and injustice in our country, in our economy, in each and every community.
One of the key places where this is revealed is in our law enforcement practices. I will never forget attending a Black Child Legacy campaign meeting with representatives of the Sacramento Police Department. Students there told us of the pain of gun violence, the pangs of voices going unheard, and their distrust of the police. Most of the representatives simply listened. Afterward, the students were asked to write down how they felt — “heard,” “empowered,” “safe,” “hopeful.” Trust and communication are key to building communities of hope.
Days later, we learned the night before the meeting, Sacramento police officers had shot and killed Stephon Clark, mistaking his cellphone for a gun. And that community of hope became a community on edge.
It is especially hard to build trust without accountability, when an act as heinous as ignoring a dying man’s pleas for eight minutes while he is pinned down with a police officer’s knee on his neck is broadcast around the world, only adding to an unceasing barrage of stories about unarmed, nonviolent people killed at the hands of the police with very few of them held accountable. Every one of these incidences, justified or not, is a tragedy and the more departments taking up efforts to reduce their use of force, train in deescalation tactics, embrace body cams, and hold officers accountable for acts of corruption, unlawful seizures, and unjustified force, the better. Community policing is people serving and protecting the communities and people they know. Trust and communication are key to building communities of hope.
We cannot let destruction be our lot. We cannot allow it to divide us further, and drive us away from this common cause. We cannot let the actions of a few drown out the voices of the many. The mayors and governors compelled to call on the national guard to quell riots deserve our support, but we should not answer the anger of the streets with opprobrium of our own.
Destruction is the tool of people who have blinded themselves to humanity. Destroying property, HURTING PEOPLE, is not a cry for attention, but clear examples of mob mentality taking hold of the anxious and agitated among us.
I ask everyone to look around, and look within, to the angels of our better nature. For better leaders, better activists, better politicians, who hold humanity first and reach for the highest mantle of leadership, to do good and unite us in common cause. Let’s all be better to one another, for one another, and replace the discord of our day with the harmony of humanity.
