Calling for Peaceful Reform

by Laura Joy Griffith

Martin Luther King Jr.

            Martin Luther King Jr. advocated peaceful reform.  Lately, the issue of race relations in the United States has been anything but peaceful.  Blacks have died at the hands of police.  Police have died at the hands of the vengeful.  Our country seems to be split down the middle, and I feel like I’m in the center of it all.  I hear people talking about how racist cops are.  A black man can’t put his hood up when he’s walking at night, or he’ll be singled out.  I hear cops talking about how dangerous it is for them right now.  Police have to defend themselves; it’s a dangerous world out there, as the police killings in New York have only served to emphasize.  If you’re like me, you’re probably sick of hearing pointless arguments; you just want peace.

            I think it is important for both sides to realize the bigger problems behind the individual incidents.  We spend so much energy “getting to the facts of the case” (Was the man armed?  Did the officer follow proper procedure?) and ignore the real issue.  Racism is still a problem in America.  Today we salute Martin Luther King Jr. for the work he did, and we are grateful for the progress that has been made in recent decades.  But there is still progress to be made.  Are individual Americans, including police officers, racist?  Undoubtedly, although it may be mostly subconscious.  Is the system racist, including the police system?  Undoubtedly.  Is killing cops the solution?  Of course not!

            What many Americans fail to realize is that police officers typically follow protocol.  If one of their choices is questioned, it may go to court; the court determines whether or not the officer has followed protocol.  An officer who has followed protocol will be acquitted.  Does that mean that whatever the officer did was okay?  Not necessarily.  It just means that he was trained to it, and he did it.  Maybe police procedure needs to change.  That can be changed.  But hatred and violence will not change it.

            I hope I speak in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. when I call for peaceful reform today.  I see racism all around me, in individuals and systems—in the dark parts of my own soul that I don’t care to talk about most of the time.  Let’s do something about it!  But, as Dr. King so famously said, “Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.  Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”