Dallas community group suggests police racism

November 24th, 2010 10:38 am CT
By Harvey Grund, Dallas City Buzz Examiner

A community group representing Dallas' African American and Latino communities, led by Rev. Derrick Bowman, want a review of Dallas Police policies on the use of excessive force and want to make sure that a person who reaches for (or appears to be) reaching for a weapon in North Dallas is shot by the police as fast as a person in South Dallas would be shot.

It's only fair I guess but it's rather meaningless and very unfair to assume (as they are very apparently doing) that Dallas Police officers protect themselves more aggressively against African American and Hispanic suspects than they do against white suspects (that is not how it is being presented of course but that's what it amounts to).

The fact that most crimes in Dallas are committed in South Dallas (see the map) might make it appear that police enforcement is more aggressive in South Dallas than it is in North Dallas but common sense dictates that there will be more police activity in high crime areas than there is in lower crime areas.

The requested excessive force "review" idea started with, according to a PBS article , the two unarmed men who were killed by police recently. Both of these men appeared to be reaching for a weapon after being stopped by police. The police are reviewing both cases and, unless there are facts that haven't been published, it would appear that neither case involved "excessive" or unnecessary force by police.

Reverend Bowman and the community group ("Concerned Citizens for Good Law Enforcement") will be hearing from Dallas Police Chief David Brown in two meeting scheduled in December. Hopefully Chief Brown (who is himself an African American) will at least be able to effectively make the point that a police officer facing a suspect who is either holding a weapon or appears to be reaching for one has a right to protect himself regardless of the race of the suspect.