Ready or not, the next big test on our country is coming
Jul 11, 2016, 5:46 AM | Updated: 10:42 am
Over the weekend, there were many appeals to remain calm and listen to each other in the aftermath of the shootings last week of police officers in Dallas and the shootings of two black men by police officers that prompted the original protest.
Everyone seems to know what to say.
The secretary of Homeland Security: “An eye for an eye leaves everybody blind.”
The Mayor of Dallas: “Can we disagree without demonizing?”
Related: Political response to deadly shootings inevitable, but is it effective?
The President of the United States: “I’d like all sides to listen to each other.”
Others, like former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, say the real problem is not the police, it’s the level of violence in black neighborhoods.
“So a black will die one percent or less at the hands of the police and 99 percent at the hands of a civilian, most often another black,” he said.
But there was at least one suggestion for actually doing something about it.
It came out over the weekend that Philando Castile, the cafeteria manager shot while he sat in his car in Minnesota after being stopped for a broken taillight, had been previously stopped for various infractions 51 times.
On NBC’s Meet the Press, former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey had one suggestion for fundamental change: get rid of smaller police departments which may have less robust training programs and merge them with larger ones so that policing is more consistent.
“I would try to cut the number in half because you’re always going to have these kinds of issues, as long as you have this many departments with different policies, procedures, training…” he explained.
In any case, ready or not, the next big test is coming.
“You’ve got two conventions coming up … and I don’t think they’re going to go without some incident taking place,” Ramsey said.
-
Tune in to KIRO Newsradio weekdays at 5am for Dave Ross on Seattle's Morning News.
