COLUMBUS, Ind. — Columbus Human Rights Director Aida Ramirez offered an outsider’s view of the wave of negative national media attention about police treatment of minorities in the past few years.
She spoke Friday afternoon at the Black History Month Zoom panel discussion “Engaging Law Enforcement: Moving Forward” when one person mentioned that he struggled to understand national media’s emphasis on police abuses. Ramirez responded by saying she understood such a focus these days.
“For decades, black and brown folks were not believed (about police improprieties),” Ramirez said. “It took video to be the backup (for truth) and the support for those black and brown folks. I think that is really an important aspect to remember.
“ … The bad is really bad — and it’s been really bad for decades. It’s been bad over and over again for the same types of people. And it wasn’t until cameras were shoved into people’s faces and video was then put online and went viral that others have finally said, ‘Oh! That really DID happen.’”
Ramirez, herself a minority as a Latino woman, was one of the panelists at the event organized by the Columbus/Bartholomew County Area chapter of the NAACP as part of Black History Month. Chapter president Pastor Johnnie Edwards moderated the 80-minute discussion. Besides Ramirez, panelists were Columbus Police Chief Michael Richardson; Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Chris Lane; Columbus City Council member Jerone Wood; and Indiana State Police Capt. Ruben Marte.
Edwards and Wood are Black. Marte is Black and Latino.
The talk included topics ranging from intervening in situations of racism to officers conveying a sense of humanness in the community when not in uniform in order to establish relationships with citizens.
“I definitely think we need to do a better job of building that bridge,” Lane said. “I think that could help everyone be more open to communicate.”
Lane, a 30-plus-year police veteran, said he long ago came to understand that “we bear the sins of all law enforcement. That’s just the way it is.”
Among the more recent, highly nationally publicized missteps of law enforcement was police in Rochester, New York, pepper-spraying a 9-year-old Black girl who was upset during her parents’ domestic disturbance. The panelists expressed horror and dismay at that action.
“If we have to teach you that (restraint) as an officer, then you have no business doing this job,” Marte said.
Wood, who said he believes there are many good officers, said he still gets nervous when he pulled over by officers — partly because he said that white officers regularly seem nervous confronting a Black man, which he sees as bad news.
“At that moment, I know that I know that I need to do everything exactly right so that I can later go home (alive),” he said.
Edwards said that he’s hoping a second discussion can happen in person if community health improves amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think this is step one,” Edwards said.
