The complicated intersection of race and police

Marshawn Wolley already talks to his 3-year-old son about race, knowing that Alexander will face challenges in society growing up black.

But on a recent car ride, on the way from day care to a work meeting, his son surprised him.

"I'm glad you go to meetings, Daddy," Alexander said, "because that means you're not going to die."

"What do you mean, Alexander?" asked Wolley, who teaches criminal justice and diversity at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

"Because you go to meetings, you're not going to die," Alexander explained. "Daddies die."

Alexander had already noticed what his father knows he will have to teach him someday: that some people fear black men, and so black men can die in situations where you don't expect to lose your life.

But Alexander understands, too, that his uncle is an Indianapolis police sergeant. He understands that he keeps people safe.

"He knows that police are there to deal with the bad guys," Wolley said, "but he also is concerned that daddies die."

Pent-up tensions crashed down on us last week in a wave of tragic events across the nation that forced us to confront many complicated, volatile feelings all at once:

That, because of their race, black people can be unfairly targeted, abused and even killed by law enforcement in seemingly benign situations.

That the injustice — and the prejudice behind it — has not been remedied.

That police officers who put their lives on the line to protect us can be brutally murdered for no other reason than being white and wearing blue.

That violent retaliation is counterproductive.

That our society's divisiveness — and the cultural and political score-keeping that comes with it — hurts us all.

"It reminds people that we're all in this together," Wolley said. "That the police are vulnerable, too, as well as the community. So it almost forces us to remember that we're neighbors. Everyone is a family member to somebody. There's some humanity to that."

On Tuesday, police shot and killed Alton Sterling outside a convenience store in Baton Rouge, La. On Wednesday, police shot and killed Philando Castile during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights, Minn. On Thursday, in apparent retaliation for those shootings, five police officers were killed and seven others were injured in an ambush during a Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas.

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As they condemned the killings of the police officers, many in Indianapolis said the conversation around policing and race has become more difficult — and more necessary.

"We need to figure out why there is so much mistrust on both sides," said Alma Trawick, the 15-year president of the Keystone Millersville Neighborhood Association.

Responding to police shootings with violence against police "is not the answer," she said, "and just makes the gap bigger."

Fear

One problem is the conversation about race and police is too often black and white: Police are racist. Black people are criminals. We know that, in reality, neither sweeping statement is true. Still, so much of the conversation — cloaked in code or just bluntly stated — becomes reduced to those simple, polarizing statements. On talk radio. On cable TV news programs. On social media.

And those sentiments often do little but pit us against each other.

"We can't have a society where youth are afraid to talk to police, and where police view a group of people as automatic suspects because they meet a profile," said Indianapolis City-County Councilman Stephen J. Clay, who is also senior pastor at Messiah Missionary Baptist Church.

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But the recent shootings put everyone even more on edge.

Trawick said the shootings of black men undermine efforts in the minority community to teach teenagers to obey police, avoid arrest and stay out of trouble.

“Now we see that whether you obey them or not, you still might get shot,” Trawick said. “If a kid says, ‘I surrender,’ what is to stop a cop from shooting him anyway?”

The outcry over the most recent shootings was explosive, in part because of how quickly seemingly routine interactions escalated.

In the case of Sterling's shooting, police responded to a call about a man with a gun. Videos showed Sterling was shot after police had him on the ground.

In the case of Castile's shooting, his girlfriend said he told police that he had a licensed gun in the car.

Apparently believing Castile was going to get the gun, the officer shot him.

"I told him not to reach for it!" the officer said in a video of the aftermath.

Castile's girlfriend, Diamond "Lavish" Reynolds, said Castile was reaching for his identification in his wallet. Just as the officer had requested.

In his work with the Indianapolis Urban League and 100 Black Men of Indianapolis, Wolley has practiced skits with youths to teach them how their actions can send cues to police that lead to dangerous situations.

But he also said there needs to be more dialogue about what police officers do and how they make those decisions.

When is lethal force warranted? What policies address escalating situations? How does de-escalation happen?

How can people comply with law enforcement orders in order to stay safe?

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From a police perspective, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officer Jim Gillespie said, police shootings across the country can increase tensions with some residents here.

“When these things happen, we hear about it,” said Gillespie, who spent eight years on patrol and is now a public information officer. “We go to a situation and people say, ‘What are you going to do, shoot me?’ They use it to try to get a reaction from us.”

Officers feel that pressure. "We get called a lot of things, more than we usually do," he said. "People are frustrated, and we have to be on our toes. But all we can do is let it roll off our back and try to do our jobs.”

The revenge shooting in Dallas was a realization of "our worst fears in the law enforcement profession," as the Indianapolis Fraternal Order of Police put it.

Frustration

For many, the plotted ambush of police officers in Dallas was an explosive manifestation of how frustrations are bubbling over.

The wave of videotaped shootings, Trawick said, is exposing what people in minority communities have been alleging all along — that police mistreat them.

“Everyone else is becoming aware of it now,” Trawick said. “They are seeing it because of cellphones. Now they have proof. Before, you had to take the police’s word for what happened.”

Horatio Luster, who heads Peace Keepers Indianapolis, said cellphone cameras are evolving into a primary form of protection against police abuse.

“It is like Big Brother is watching, but it is watching the police,” said Luster, a former drug dealer who became a street outreach worker for the anti-crime group Ten Point Coalition before forming his own organization. “The camera shows that there are some injustices on the police side. It is no longer so much of a ‘He said, she said’ thing. There is an actual recording of what took place.”

A group of Indianapolis pastors recently called for police body cameras and bias training after the fatal shooting of 44-year-old Kevin Hicks, who was unarmed, in April. Hicks was shot by IMPD officer Robert Carmichael during a physical altercation at the Marathon gas station at East 10th and North Rural streets. Witnesses told police that Hicks may have reached for Carmichael's gun during the struggle.

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The clergymen want a policy for the quick release of video and audio captured during shootings.

Luster said for people trying to reach youths in the community, police shootings, especially those captured on tape, “make the job harder.”

“You are already dealing with someone who has been hardened by the system or society,” he said. “Now they say, ‘Why should I listen to you or the police? Look what they did to him.’ ”

And black men continue to die at the hands of police officers. Even as high-profile cases have brought national scrutiny to the issue of racial bias, many feel that little has been done to combat systemic racism. Investigations have largely favored law enforcement, leaving many to feel that racial discrimination remains ingrained in the system.

The prevalence of police shootings caught on video has shocked and saddened Pastor Kim Graves, who operates New Vision Ministries next to the high-crime Blackburn Terrace apartments near Keystone Avenue and 34th Street.

“There is a disparity in police action shooting against black males,” Graves said. “I feel like the police officers are fearful, and some are just animals in uniform. But I don’t believe they are all bad. I don’t know what the screening process is, but maybe there has to be more sensitivity training. It is a war out there worse than the Middle East.”

As Clay, the councilman and pastor, says it, we need to find ways for all sides to "vent in respectful ways."

As Wolley says it, "It seems like there is an indifference to black life, but at the same time, I know that there are a lot of people in the city, a lot of organizations, a lot of folks doing work. I still have aspirations for healthy policy and community relations."

Call IndyStar reporter Stephanie Wang at (317) 444-6184. Follow her on Twitter: @stephaniewang.