Common Sense
So here’s a “common sense” question. If a particular institution throughout the United States, has a consistent problem, over and over again, would it be “common sense” to say that the problem was “systemic”?
American businesses said that students were unprepared for modern work. Few outside of education had a problem with the “national” solution: instituting standardized tests. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think standardized tests did much besides making our kids better at taking standardized tests. But we (as a nation) didn’t seem to have a problem with this “national solution to a systemic problem” in education.
And the problem in education did exist. Individual teachers, and individual school districts went “against the trend” and prepared their students well. But many schools didn’t, and we as a nation searched for a national solution to resolve the issue.
In Our Face
This week we continue to watch the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis Police Officer being tried for the death of George Floyd. We listen to the experts explain what our eyes can plainly see on the videos. Chauvin choked the life out of Floyd over the more than nine minutes that he kneeled on his back and neck. And we hear the leaders of the Minneapolis Police Department. The Commanders and the Chief explain that what Chauvin did was far outside the bounds of “procedure” for the MPD. In their testimony they make it clear that they see Chauvin as a “rogue cop”, outside the norms of their institution and policing.
But as we agonize through this trial, still up in the air about what the jury will determine, another black man is killed by a police officer just ten miles away. Her Department Chief says it was an accident. The police officer reached for her Taser, but instead pulled her gun. “Taser, Taser, Taser!” she warns her fellow officers, then she pulls the trigger and fatally shoots a twenty-year-old Black man, Daunte Wright, in the chest.
How Many Times
And as we watch that disaster, just miles away from the Chauvin trial, we then see a video from December. Army Lieutenant Caron Nazario, a Black man, is pulled over, ostensibly for failing to display a temporary vehicle license (that license is visible in the video in his back window). The Lieutenant, after the police lights come on behind his car, puts on his flashers and drives on for an extra minute and a half to pull over in a “lighted area”, a gas station. He is a Black man interacting with the Police. He is afraid.
The police officers react to this “failure to comply” by drawing their weapons, and treating the stop like a “major felony” arrest. They aim their guns, and demand that the Lieutenant put his arms out the window of the car, then exit. Nazario, faced with drawn guns in his face, is afraid to reach down to release his seatbelt. He is a black man in America, and like Orlando Castillo, does not know which instruction to obey. If he reaches for his seatbelt, does that give justification for the officers to shoot?
Ultimately the Lieutenant is pepper sprayed, dragged from the car, taken to the ground and handcuffed. Then the police begin to “negotiate”, “talking” back the actions they have already taken.
And here in Columbus, two black men have been shot and killed by police officers under more than questionable circumstances. Somehow those shootings haven’t garnered the national attention that Minneapolis or Windsor, Virginia got. Maybe the video evidence isn’t as compelling.
There’s a Problem
I don’t claim to have all the answers to this problem, the killing of Black men by the police. And I absolutely don’t blame every, single, individual police officer for the actions of a few. But can’t we say that this is a national problem, one that seems to be more than just a few “rogue officers”. It is a “systemic” problem in our policing. And since it’s a problem based in race, shouldn’t we call it what it is: “systemic racism”.
Every teacher wasn’t a failure, but our Nation had little problem upending education with standardized tests. Every police officer isn’t a problem either. But isn’t the evidence clear that this is a National problem, demanding National solutions?
As an educator, I don’t think standardized testing “fixed” education. But we saw a problem, and we tried to fix it. Well there’s sure a problem with policing, and it’s costing lives. We need to start looking for a national solution, now.
