Walter Scott: What is to be done?

Walter Scott is dead.

This is not just an individual evil, but part of a pattern of police brutality that African-Americans know exists in much of the United States.  Our Republic cannot stand half terrorized and half free. Citizens of this nation get up and go about their business knowing that their local police treat them unjustly based on the color of their skin.

This is intolerable and it is not new. The problem is racism.

What is to be done?

Too many people die when confronted by American police and the numbers of the slain are disproportionately from citizens of color. As we saw in the Justice Department investigation of Ferguson, there is a familiar pattern of departments targeting African-American citizens on minor charges that escalate to major offenses.

In the case of Walter Scott, a traffic stop ended in his death at the hand of an officer. “Whites only” signs were immoral, but when whites only are safer from our police it is worse. Because police department practices set up confrontations in subtle ways, they are harder to stamp out.

Christian churches must unite and put political pressure on police particularly in poorer communities of color. This united action should cross denominational and racial lines. Christians cannot ignore that some of our brothers and sisters in the Faith live in communities where police power is abused. This problem is not going to “go away” and silence about racism leads to death. We should stand with any person who can help bring peace to all our neighborhoods.

Racism is contrary to the Gospel. Christian defenses of racism in America pulled us out of the moral mainstream of the global faith in American arrogance. They are a blot on our Christian witness. Our churches continue to be too segregated. We must do more and support those who are.

Republicans should stand in solidarity behind leaders like Senator Tim Scott and push for changes inside the state he represents led by the Republican Party that dominates state politics. Our Presidential candidates must address this issue with plans for what can be done. As a party of law and order, Republicans must protect the law by standing up to the abuse of that law by those paid to protect it. As a party of law and order, Republicans must protect order, the right to live our lives in peace, for citizens who dread police brutality. As a conservative party, Republicans must restrain the power of the state where it is harming the innocent.

We should demand that all our candidates for office at every level say what they plan to do about racism. How will they make America’s original sin less of a problem in their time in service to us?

The leaders of departments that keep producing “bad cops” need to be fired. The “good old boys” network of local law enforcement should be shaken up by the voters. It is a conservative principle that the police power be local and reflect the community it polices. If most citizens of an area are African-American, we should demand an African-American chief of police like the sterling chief we have here in Houston.

Finally, we must not let the conversation get sidetracked or have a short attention span on this issue. This is about racism. This is not about affirmative action. This is not about conservative or liberal. This is not about Christian or not Christian. This is about the evils of racism. People who come to this proper conclusion are allies and we can join with them in the fight.

Americans held slaves for hundreds of years. Some Americans died for the right to own African-Americans. Other Americans spent decades concocting means to keep African-Americans in an inferior position through state power in the Jim Crow laws. Reconstruction was prematurely ended and the promises to the freedmen were not kept.  In my Dad’s lifetime, lynching was a too common means of ending any racial discussion. The impact of all these evils continue to be felt today. How could it not?

Progress has been made. Nobody denies this fact. Progress must continue to be made or the fabric of our Republic will fray past the point of repair. No citizen should be told to be patient when his life is at risk. No citizen should wait for justice.

We must all be impatient for an end to the systematic and institutional racism that allows even decent people to do bad things. This is about racism and ending racism.

This is a fight that I cannot dodge. Because I am a global Christian, I cannot tolerate the heresy of American racism in Christianity. Because I am a conservative, I distrust the power of government and side with those that government oppresses. Because I am an American, I believe that all human beings are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights including the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I know from American history and America now that those rights are not yet as secure for my African-American neighbor and so the fight for Civil Rights continues.