Chicago can ‘partner’ with its police, with their help

The leading example these days is George Floyd, whom the world has watched on video choking to death with the knee of Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin on his neck, uninterrupted for more than eight minutes by three other officers standing by. All four have been fired and charged in connection with the death.

Suddenly the grotesqueness of the image and the officer’s casual expression as Floyd helplessly choked out, “I can’t breathe,” and called out for his mother struck a nerve that transcended borders.

Suddenly with this particularly horrendous video, skeptics around the world seemed to understand with new clarity what Black Lives Matter protesters had been chanting about.

Public approval of the movement roughly doubled, according to the Pew Research Center and other pollsters. Two-thirds of American adults surveyed said they support the movement, with 38% saying they strongly support it.

Besides Black Americans, among whom support was particularly strong, 60% of white Americans, 77% of Hispanic Americans and 75% of Asian Americans also expressed support.

But supporting Black Lives Matter only begins another very necessary debate about other crimes against Black people, most of which are committed by Black criminals.

Contrary to the impression given by some conservative pundits and Twitter trolls, Black people do get out and march against Black-on-Black violence in their communities. But, sad to say, Black-on-Black protests don’t get as much media attention outside the African American press as those that cross racial lines.

“We say Black lives matter,” said the Rev. Ira Acree of Greater St. John Bible Church at a Chicago street corner gathering on Sunday afternoon to mourn Mekhi James and other children killed in weekend violence. “But we’re here to say Black baby lives matter more.”

So why have we Americans argued for more than a half-century about urban crime when we agree on so much? Unfortunately, it has been easier for some people to cling to spurious and often partisan excuses for inaction.

It’s easy to criticize or ridicule Black Lives Matter. It’s tougher but more rewarding to actually produce programs and policies that can reduce the problems that Black Lives Matter is protesting about.

Like “Black power,” Black Lives Matter is a slogan in search of an agenda. For instance, I think we need to improve the police, not “abolish the police,” as another misleading slogan goes.

At a news conference, Chicago’s new police Superintendent David Brown, the former Dallas chief who has been in his new job for only a couple of months, said he would push for changes that include more street outreach to improve community relations and cooperation with the civilians whom the police are sworn to serve.

He also asked for “just a little help” from other “partners” in the criminal justice system to deal with such problems as violent felons released from jail to reduce the coronavirus spread. No need to be modest.

Police need a lot of help from all of us in fighting crime, and we, the public, need their help to make that cooperation happen.

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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)