'I can't breathe' is being felt nationwide

This post was published in the Wilson Times June 5, 2020.

“I can’t breathe …” America has heard these words before. These words came as the desperate plea of black men in police custody. We heard it in New York City in 2014 as Eric Garner slowly suffocated in the arms of a police officer. We heard it again from George Floyd of Minneapolis May 25 as a police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck, cutting off his air. Other African-Americans who posed no threat to police or the public have been shot dead by police officers.

The words of Garner and Floyd can apply in a larger sense to this nation, which has been denying that it has a problem with overly aggressive and needlessly punishing law enforcement. Protesters in cities throughout America and the world have proclaimed that they are on the side of African-American men who are routinely mistreated in the name of achieving “law and order.”

America’s cities have been inflamed before, particularly in 1968 after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., but underlying problems persist.

The mostly peaceful recent protests have, in many cities, devolved into vandalism as stores and government buildings have been set ablaze by demonstrators who came prepared for violent combat. Private and public property was destroyed. Windows were shattered — even in Wilson — and stores were ransacked by organized or opportunistic looters.

To repair the nation, we must change the way law enforcement officers are trained. Excessive force should never be necessary. Garner was suspected of selling untaxed cigarettes on the street. Floyd may have been accused of possessing a counterfeit $20 bill. These men were not dangerous criminals, not a threat to society. Use of deadly force over an inconsequential offense cannot be justified.

These deaths are part of a pattern of racially tinged law enforcement going back, some say, to the era of slavery. Let’s get chokeholds and knees on windpipes out of police departments’ playbooks. Let’s restore black America’s trust in law enforcement.

And let’s take racial prejudice out of the economy. Some have relied upon the argument that people are poor because of bad decisions they made, and it is true that bad decisions can ruin a person’s opportunities for a better life, but that’s not the whole story. As writer Ta Nehisi Coates has documented, zoning laws, substandard education, federal banking rules, access to agricultural grants and other obscure limitations have kept African-Americans out of the larger economy.

America must begin a process of eliminating all these barriers so that equal opportunity really is fair. Federal grants could help poor people buy or repair homes or start a business, giving them a solid foundation.

We should also recognize that protests against injustice are being used by people with nefarious intentions. Rumors abound as to whether far-right or far-left extremists are igniting the fires that are burning down our cities. Let it be clear that anarchists, neo-Nazis and white supremacists are among us and are an imminent danger to America’s principles. A right to assemble and petition government is guaranteed in the Constitution. There is no right to riot, burn and destroy. Law enforcement should use every legal method, from facial recognition software to monitoring cell phones, to identify and indict those who steal legitimate protests to create chaos and destruction.

America needs a reassessment, an honest examination of how we got to this point. That reassessment can’t take place under a president who urges police to be more violent and abusive and touts military involvement. If we fail to change, the next “I can’t breathe” might summarize the entire nation’s suffering.