So here\u2019s a \u201ccommon sense\u201d question. If a particular institution throughout the United States, has a consistent problem, over and over again, would it be \u201ccommon sense\u201d to say that the problem was \u201csystemic\u201d? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
American businesses said that students were unprepared for modern work. Few outside of education had a problem with the \u201cnational\u201d solution:\u00a0\u00a0instituting standardized tests.\u00a0\u00a0Don\u2019t get me wrong. I don\u2019t think standardized tests did much besides making our kids better at taking standardized tests. But we (as a nation) didn\u2019t seem to have a problem with this \u201cnational solution to a systemic problem\u201d in education.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the problem in education did exist. Individual teachers, and individual school districts went \u201cagainst the trend\u201d and prepared their students well. But many schools didn\u2019t, and we as a nation searched for a national solution to resolve the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This week we continue to watch the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis Police Officer being tried for the death of George Floyd.\u00a0\u00a0We listen to the experts explain what our eyes can plainly see on the videos.\u00a0\u00a0Chauvin choked the life out of Floyd over the more than nine minutes that he kneeled on his back and neck.\u00a0\u00a0And 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 \u201cprocedure\u201d for the MPD.\u00a0\u00a0In their testimony they make it clear that they see Chauvin as a \u201crogue cop\u201d, outside the norms of their institution and policing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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. \u201cTaser, Taser, Taser!\u201d she warns her fellow officers, then she pulls the trigger and fatally shoots a twenty-year-old Black man, Daunte Wright, in the chest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And as we watch that disaster, just miles away from the Chauvin trial, we then see a video from December.\u00a0\u00a0Army 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).\u00a0\u00a0The 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 \u201clighted area\u201d, a gas station.\u00a0\u00a0He is a Black man interacting with the Police.\u00a0\u00a0He is afraid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The police officers react to this \u201cfailure to comply\u201d by drawing their weapons, and treating the stop like a \u201cmajor felony\u201d arrest.\u00a0\u00a0They aim their guns, and demand that the Lieutenant put his arms out the window of the car, then exit.\u00a0\u00a0Nazario, faced with drawn guns in his face, is afraid to reach down to release his seatbelt.\u00a0\u00a0He is a black man in America, and like Orlando Castillo, does not know which instruction to obey.\u00a0\u00a0If he reaches for his seatbelt, does that give justification for the officers to shoot?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ultimately the Lieutenant is pepper sprayed, dragged from the car, taken to the ground and handcuffed. Then the police begin to \u201cnegotiate\u201d, \u201ctalking\u201d back the actions they have already taken. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And here in Columbus, two black men have been shot and killed by police officers under more than questionable circumstances. Somehow those shootings haven\u2019t garnered the national attention that Minneapolis or Windsor, Virginia got. Maybe the video evidence isn\u2019t as compelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t claim to have all the answers to this problem, the killing of Black men by the police.\u00a0\u00a0And I absolutely don\u2019t blame every, single, individual police officer for the actions of a few.\u00a0\u00a0But can\u2019t we say that this is a national problem, one that seems to be more than just a few \u201crogue officers\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0It is a \u201csystemic\u201d problem in our policing. And since it\u2019s a problem based in race, shouldn\u2019t we call it what it is:\u00a0\u00a0\u201csystemic racism\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every teacher wasn\u2019t a failure, but our Nation had little problem upending education with standardized tests.\u00a0\u00a0Every police officer isn\u2019t a problem either. But isn\u2019t the evidence clear that this is a National problem, demanding National solutions?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As an educator, I don\u2019t think standardized testing \u201cfixed\u201d education.\u00a0\u00a0But we saw a problem, and we tried to fix it.\u00a0\u00a0Well there\u2019s sure a problem with policing, and it\u2019s costing lives.\u00a0\u00a0We need to start looking for a national solution, now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"