Advertisement

Why is Lexington stalling on police reform? Haven’t we seen enough?

At about the same time on Tuesday afternoon that we found out Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin would actually be held accountable for murdering George Floyd, a Columbus, Ohio police officer shot and killed 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant because she was brandishing a knife.

Nearly everyone who publicly celebrated the rare conviction of a police officer made the point that it was only a start in a long reformation needed in how law enforcement does its job and how it is held accountable.

That point was made all too clearly and tragically in the past few weeks, not just in Columbus but also Chicago and Brooklyn Center, Minn. By what training standard does anyone pull the trigger four times at a teenage girl holding a knife? How does a police officer mistake their Taser for a gun, as they allegedly did in the case of Daunte Wright on April 11? How does a police officer shoot a 13-year-old boy named Adam Toledo who is putting his hands in the air?

How many more bodies must be counted, how many more young people of color must die before we stop this madness? Surely even the staunchest Blue Lives Matter advocates can see that while there are plenty of good people in the police, the systems that recruit, train and militarize them are deeply, intrinsically racist and wrong.

President Joe Biden pledged to do more on a federal level. On a local level, however, city leaders and the Lexington Police Department seem strangely reluctant to take much-needed steps to avoid the tragedy that happened just down the road from here. The city and police have made some progress on issues like the expansion of body-worn cameras, and more training on escalation. But unlike Louisville, they have only declared a moratorium on no-knock warrants. It’s not clear exactly why Mayor Linda Gorton and the council won’t take the steps to ban this practice outright, but it is becoming a disgrace.

As pointed out by the Black Faith Leaders of Lexington, who have brought up this issue again and again: “It could not be clearer that the possible benefits associated with executing no knock warrants are far outweighed by the potential loss of life and the community’s cry for police reform.” They have even sent a copy of model legislation for the Urban County Council to use.

The faith leaders are also demanding more civilian participation in police discipline hearings, and dropped charges against the downtown Lexington protesters who peacefully marched against police brutality all summer. As we noted earlier, “instead of prosecuting the protesters, we ought to thank them for their dedication to opening this community’s eyes. They fought against injustice, they should not be victims of it.”

Lexington leaders have a chance to start reforms needed to avoid the pointless and tragic bloodshed at the hands of police we seem to see every day. Let’s hope they can summon the moral courage to start.