A CALL FOR MORE THAN
JUDICIAL REMEDIES TO THE KILLING OF AFRICAN AMERICAN BOYS AND MEN
By the Reverend Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II
Director, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Public Witness
The
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Public Witness is the voice
of Presbyterian public policy and advocates for the social justice policies
approved by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
“In each time and place, there are particular
problems and crisis through which God calls the church to act. The church,
guided by the Spirit, humbled by its own complicity and instructed by all
attainable knowledge, seeks to discern the will of God and learn how to obey in
these concrete situations…”
-- The Confession of
1967, 9.43
Let
me begin by expressing my deep sympathies to the families and all persons
adversely affected by the killings of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and the many
others whose lives have been unjustly and too early taken by the scourge of gun
violence. To the families who suffer needlessly from the loss of loved ones due
to murder and gun violence in the United States, I can only convey the Spirit
of our faith in the words of Jesus, “Blessed
are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4)
THE KILLING OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN AND
BOYS
On
July 17, 2014, Eric Garner, an African American man was seen on a cell phone
video being choked to death, ostensibly for selling single cigarettes, by New
York City police with what appeared to be excessive force.
On
August 9, 2014, Michael Brown, a 18-year-old African American boy in Ferguson,
Missouri, was shot while holding his hands in the air indicating
that he was unarmed. Both killings were perpetrated by White police officers. The
PC(USA) Office of Public Witness in Washington, DC, has been inundated with
requests to sign and release statements regarding the shooting of Michael
Brown. After taking some time to pause and reflect, I am releasing this
statement.
The
killing of African American males by Whites, and others, seems to be trapped in
legal standards that justify such violence by giving persons the right to
defend themselves with excessive force, even when it seems unwarranted. On July
13, 2013, a Florida jury exonerated George Zimmerman, a mixed-race man, of all
charges related to the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida. The George Zimmerman trial and verdict brought to the
forefront the “Stand Your Ground” law which, in principle, gives a person the
right to use deadly force in self-defense if he or she feels that such force is
necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm.[1]
In
November 2012, Jordan Davis, a 17-year-old African American and resident of
Jacksonville, Florida, was killed by Michael David Dunn, a 45-year-old White
man, for playing his music too loudly while sitting in a car. Dunn was
convicted of attempted murder. He was not convicted of murder due to a hung
jury. The “Stand Your Ground” defense was used in the Dunn case.
In
July 2012, Chavis Carter, a 21-year-old African American who was
handcuffed in the back of a police car in Jonesboro, Arkansas, is alleged to
have shot himself in the head with a concealed weapon while handcuffed.
Questions remain as to the validity of police reports in Carter’s alleged
suicide.
Oscar
Grant was a 22-year-old African American man on a subway platform in
Oakland, California. He was apprehended by police and shot dead while in
custody on January 1, 2009. The White police officer was exonerated after
saying he thought he had pulled his Taser.
The
litany goes on and on. These high profile cases leave very little confidence in
a rule of law or its capacity to examine the facts fairly and prosecute White
police officers for murder. Therefore, residents of Ferguson, Missouri, engage
in a peaceful resistance movement to demonstrate their deep anger, fear, and
frustration over the police-killing of a 17-year-old African American boy.
OUR CALLING TO ADDRESS RACISM
The
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is called through our confessional documents to be
the Church of every age. “God’s
reconciling work in Jesus Christ and the mission of reconciliation to which he
has called his church are the heart of the gospel in any age. Our generation
stands in peculiar need of reconciliation in Christ.” (The Confession of 1967, 9.06) It is not
enough for us as Christians to be appalled or sad while viewing Ferguson, Missouri,
as a place beyond our own reality. We must be clear that the issues of this
shooting are deeper than anything one trial can resolve. Yes, it is about the
shattered hopes of a family that has lost a loved one, a loss which will reverberate
for generations. But it is also deeply and truly about the social sin of
prejudice, bigotry, and institutionalized racism, which is imbedded in our
social structures, our justice system, and the laws by which we claim to offer
freedom to each other.
As
Presbyterians, we must stop giving lip service to a new Church while failing to
confront the vestiges of racism in our Church and Society. Our work on racism
in the United States is historic in some instances, but insignificant at many
recent junctures in our social history. Most often our preference has been to
wait for General Assembly statements or involvement from other entities of the
denomination to provide litanies, prayers, and words of confession or healing.
However, it is imperative that local congregations not remain silent and idle amid
community strife. Nor can we be out of touch with the realities of racism,
which still exist in the United States.[2]
The 211th General Assembly (1999) of the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.) approved a policy document Facing Racism: A Vision of the Beloved
Community. In it, the
collected discernment of the Spirit offered this wisdom:
The PC(USA), and indeed the Christian community, must recommit
to the struggle for racial justice. Churches must provide a moral compass for
the nation by getting involved in shaping public policies that will move our
nation towards justice, peace, and reconciliation. As we stand on the verge of
a new century, racism remains resilient and resurgent. While the social
policies and pronouncements of denominations continue to emphasize
inclusiveness and justice, these do not translate in the hearts and minds of
Christians who participate in the electoral and political process. Christians
are passive in the face of attacks on affirmative action and the adoption of
regressive social policies at the local, state, and national levels. There is a
growing awareness that a new understanding of racism is needed that takes into
consideration the centrality of power in the institutionalization and
perpetuation of racism. There is also an awareness that the methodologies that
brought us to where we are will not take us where we need to go in the next
century. If we are to build on past accomplishments, we must do a new analysis
of racism within the current context of the nation. This will inform the
direction we must take in the next century and provide guidance as to how we
might get there.[3]
It
is imperative that we go deeper than pulpit exchanges once each year to satisfy
the call of celebrating Racial Justice Sunday. A once-a-year celebration of
justice and advocacy work is no more theologically correct than a belief that
Christmas or Easter is celebrated only once a year. For people who really read
the scriptures and know Jesus’ call to justice work, we know that it is a
lifetime commitment to righting the ills of our society and world. The
PC(USA), and indeed the Christian community, must recommit to the pursuit of
and struggle for racial justice. Churches must provide a moral compass for the
nation by getting outside their buildings, engaging in their communities, and
shaping public policies that will move our whole nation towards justice, peace,
and reconciliation for all people.
OUR CALLING TO ERADICATE GUN VIOLENCE
The
African American community is the hardest hit by gun violence, as I have
suggested earlier. The deterioration of social trust and the consolidation of
poverty in inner-city neighborhoods has spawned a culture of violence in which
guns have become the “symbols and tools,” not so much of freedom as of
survival. The result -- the firearm death rate for African Americans is twice
what it is for White Americans. Although African American males only make up six
percent of the population, they account for 47 percent of gun homicides. Young
African American men (aged 15–34) are more likely to die by a bullet than by disease,
accident, or suicide. This is not true for any other demographic.[4]
Gun
violence permeates every aspect of our society. Thirty-thousand people are
killed in the United States each year by guns. It is difficult for some of us
to view police officers as perpetrators of gun violence. Many of our historic
views of police are shaped by “Officer Friendly”[5]
and/or the sacrificial efforts of first-responders during the 911 attacks on
the World Trade Center. However, let us not forget that police are human beings
who face all of the fears, uncertainties, struggles, pains, prejudices, and
frailties as every other human being. Their jobs are demanding and accompanying
pressures from home or other parts of their lives are not always
compartmentalized. Each time an officer fires a gun a potential act of gun
violence is occurring. During the writing of this statement, press reports
indicate that Michael Brown was unarmed and walking away from the officer with
his hands raised in the air when he was killed. If these news reports are
correct the police officer murdered a 18-year-old boy.
The 219th
General Assembly (2010) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) approved Gun Violence, Gospel Values, which begins with a call for the use
non-lethal weapons by police.[6] Earlier
this week the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Public Witness joined
partners in the faith community by signing a faith letter developed by the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL).
The letter calls for police in Ferguson, Missouri --
“[to] stop treating the people that they are supposed to serve
and protect as the enemy. Armed with weapons and riot gear, the police officers
look like they're coming from a war zone. Their equipment did. The Ferguson
Police Department received military-grade equipment -- free of charge -- from
the Pentagon as part of the 1033 program. And they've been using the weapons
and gear against protesters following the police shooting of Mike Brown, an
unarmed 17-year-old.”
Community
cannot be built with the threats of extreme force and military-grade weapons.
Community is established through respectful dialogue, intentional relationship
building, and interpersonal engagement. We must demilitarize our local police
forces.
Churches
are communities. Churches are also in communities. We in the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.) must become proactive in calling people together to address the
violence that is evidenced in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, and each time
a person is killed in our local communities. The epidemic of deaths due to gun violence
in our country – 30,000 per year – is representative of a war zone every day.
Congregations
that seriously desire to curb gun violence must be willing to advocate for
Common Sense Gun Laws at the state, local, and national levels. We have and must
continue to call for –
- A ban on all assault weapons. These are weapons of war and there is no reason for common citizens (including local police) to purchase or possess them. We do not use AK-47’s to hunt deer or to keep the peace! Therefore, we must advocate for the reinstatement of the assault weapons ban, which lapsed in 2004.
- We are calling for universal background checks. Presently, there is no federal requirement of a background check for the purchase of a firearm and some states do not require them at all. Therefore, persons that are struggling with mental illness, or do not know how to handle a gun safely, or possess criminal records can make gun purchases.
- Gun trafficking should be made a federal crime. Currently, prosecutions only occur under a law that prohibits the sale of guns without a federal license, which carries the same punishment as trafficking chicken or livestock. We must empower law enforcement to investigate and prosecute straw purchasers, gun traffickers, and their entire criminal networks.
- We must advocate for an end to straw purchases of guns. No one should be allowed to purchase a gun for someone who legally cannot purchase one for him/herself.[7]
- We must call on the Pentagon to end the 1033 program, which arms local police forces with the weapons of war. Surplus weapons of war have no place in our local communities or in the hands of law enforcement. They are not soldiers.
CALL TO ACTION
So,
the response must be multi-faceted. It isn’t enough to feel outrage, but do
nothing. Or to feel fear, but do nothing. Or to feel utter, bone-crushing
grief, but do nothing. We must institute policies that limit access to guns.
Weapons of war have no place in our homes, communities, or law enforcement. But
more than that, we as Church must confront the social sin of racism head-on. We
must get outside our church buildings, beyond our comfort zones, and say loud
and clear, “this is my brother and I will not accept that his life is less
valuable than mine. The violence has to stop.” We must be willing to challenge the culture that tells African American
boys that their lives are worth less than the lives of White boys. We live in a
culture that attempts to justify itself by claiming “self-defense” when we
really mean fear and bigotry, or pride, or individualism. But all of this is sin. Our
faith reminds us that God is all sovereign and that “God calls us to love our
neighbors, not protect ourselves against our neighbors.”[8]
PRAYERS FOR THE DAYS AHEAD
Let us pray
that Jesus’ love will comfort those in
Ferguson, Missouri, who feel anger and sorrow.
that healing comes to all persons mourning
the loss of someone who tragically died by gun violence.
that God will assist the legal system to
hear the truth in all cases involving injustice, without biased ears and
predetermined agendas based on bigotry and racial domination.
that we in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
will be sensitized to the daily violence that permeates our society and do
something about it in our efforts to build community across the lines that
divide us.
that we will be the instruments that end
bigotry and hatred, challenging the false construction of race in our nation
and world, so that we can see one another with hearts of love and not simply
skin color.
that the Church will lead us with courage
into a new day with the guidance of the Holy Spirit
that we will come to understand that love
wins and God is in charge of this world - not us.
Amen
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The
Reverend J. Herbert Nelson, II, is the Director for Public Witness at the
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Public Witness in Washington, DC.
Correction: The initial statement, based on
media reports at the time, stated that Michael Brown was shot in the back. New
reports show that he was shot in the front and the head. The initial statement also put Michael Brown's age at 17. He was 18.
[1] “In the United States,
stand-your-ground law removes a duty to retreat from the elements self-defense.
The concept sometimes exists in statutory law and sometimes through common law
precedents. "Stand Your Ground" laws effectively extend the Castle
Doctrine to any place someone has a right to be. Forty-six states in the United
States have adopted the castle doctrine, stating that a person has no duty to
retreat when their home is attacked. Twenty-two states go a step further, removing
the duty of retreat from other locations. "Stand Your Ground",
"Line in the Sand" or "No Duty to Retreat" laws thus state
that a person has no duty or other requirement to abandon a place in which he
has a right to be, or to give up ground to an assailant. Under such laws, there
is no duty to retreat from anywhere the defender may legally be. Other
restrictions may still exist; such as when in public, a person must be carrying
firearms in a legal manner, whether concealed or openly.” Definition cited from
the Wikipedia article, “Stand-your-ground law,” accessed on Aug. 20, 2014, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand-your-ground_law.
[2] See “Two Churches in
Missouri are filled with faith, but common ground remains elusive,” by Emily
Wax-Thibodeaux and DeNeen Brown, The
Washington Post, Aug. 17, 2014. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/community-turns-to-prayer-for-officer-in-fatal-shooting/2014/08/17/e7580d2a-2636-11e4-8593-da634b334390_story.html
[3] See Facing Racism: A Vision of the Beloved Community, approved by the
211th General Assembly (1999) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.),
developed by the Initiative Team on Racism and Racial Violence. Available for
download at: http://www.pcusa.org/resource/facing-racism-vision-beloved-community/
[4] Race Matters,
(Boston: Beacon Press, 1993). “Nihilism is to be understood here… (as) the
lived experience of coping,” quoted in Gun
Violence, Gospel Values: Mobilizing in Response to God’s Call, p. 16,
approved by the 219th General Assembly (2010) of the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.). http://www.pcusa.org/resource/gun-violence-gospel-values-mobilizing-response-god/
[5] “Officer Friendly is a
model program to acquaint children and young adults with law enforcement
officials as a part of a community relations campaign. The program was
especially popular in the United States from the 1960s to the 1980s, but it
continues in some police departments.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Officer_Friendly
[6] Gun Violence, Gospel Values: Mobilizing in Response to God’s Call, approved by the 219th
General Assembly (2010) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). http://www.pcusa.org/resource/gun-violence-gospel-values-mobilizing-response-god/
[7] Ibid.
[8] Quoted, James Atwood,
author of America and Its Guns: A
Theological Expose, Presbyterian activist on gun violence and contributor
to Gun Violence, Gospel Values:
Mobilizing in Response to God’s Call.
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