Indiana

Are We Missing the Big Picture?

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

A report on the alleged police brutality incident involving Brandon Johnson could come as early as Friday.   IMPD officials tell me they are being very thorough in their investigation, however details are still hard to come by.  My political instinct tells me that the report will likely find that there was enough  blame to go around and that both parties probably crossed a line they shouldn’t have.

With that said, a noticeable portion of  the outrage in Black community has been directed at IMPD with a lot of people playing Monday morning police chief.  I think what some of these critics are missing though is the reason the cops were called to the scene in the first place.   There were neighborhood reports of a break-in in broad daylight. That individual being Brandon Johnson’s brother.

This is not excusing any excessive force that may have been used, but I think in the zeal to crucify the police department  some local community activists are forgetting  that had Brandon’s brother not been reportedly breaking the law, the cops would have never have had to come out in the first place and none of this would have occurred.

I still have a hard time trying to figure out  why this attitude is still sticking around.  Does anyone in this town want to hold these young men accountable for their actions?   Nine out of ten times when a young black man is killed in this town, it’s another young black man?   However, when reasonable people try to hold these young men accountable, you get claims of racism.  When reasonable people want to improve the schools these young people go to, they are accused of trying to destroy public education.  When reasonable say stop having children you can’t afford to take care, they’re accused of being uncaring.

No offense, but if the same people who make excuses for bad behavior would spend as much time trying to correct the bad actors as they do going after the critics, this town would be in much better shape.  But I guess it’s hard to grasp the big picture when you only see what you want to see.

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on June 06, 2010 (boomark / email).