Turn The Other Cheek?
- Ellen Dahlke
- Jan 22, 2016
- 3 min read
National news has beamed very little spotlight on a combustible issue that is making the streets of San Francisco hot. On a chilly, December afternoon in 2015, a young man followed by a squad of police officers was shot to death in the predominately African-American Bayview-Hunters Point section of San Francisco. Police Chief Greg Suhr said that Mario Woods, 26-year old, raised a hand containing a kitchen knife causing five police officers to open fire on him. Eyewitness reports and video taken at the scene appear to refute that claim.
Demonstrations calling from the resignation of Police Chief Suhr have been fiery and loud. Many are saying the officers who killed Woods should be released, even imprisoned. On January 19th, 2016. 70 off duty police officers showed up at a community meeting in a show of solidarity for the officers in question. Community members were incensed.
On the evening of January 20th, 2016, a community meeting was held at historic
Third Baptist Church in the San Francisco Fillmore district.
The Fillmore contains block after block of beautiful victorian homes, most of them restored. It was once the home of a thriving African-American community called, the "Harlem of the West." Gentrification has done it's bone grinding work here. Few blacks can afford to call San Francisco home any more. The political power base called the Fillmore has been decimated. Today, San Francisco's population stands at somewhere around 3% African-American; the second smallest precentage of any major city in the nation.
Tonight, there were about as many police officers and news people in attendance as community members. They were there to discuss deadly force and police policy. Before the event could get underway, Reverend Dr. Amos Brown, the pastor of Third Baptist Church was introduced. Few would dispute his seat as the primary leader of San Francisco's African-American community. And he had some things to say tonight.
The stand that he takes is an unpopular one. He says that he is against the firing of Police Chief Greg Suhr, a man who seemingly came out instantly on behalf of the officers who shot Mario Woods, even before the facts were thoroughly assembled. The pastor and head of the San Francisco branch of the NAACP said that the firing of the chief would be "too weak and too simple." Pastor Amos Brown further stated that the problem is in the system itself. He seemed to say that the Police Chief had seen the error of his ways and had walked back some of his unmitigated support for his officers.
Reverend Dr. Amos Brown was not finished there. He spoke against the actions of Black Lives Matter demonstrators who had closed down the San Francisco Bay Bridge in protest on Dr. King Day. Pastor Brown said that some of the demonstrators reportedly said that they operated in the "spirit" of Dr. King. He disagreed. Dr. Amos Brown knew the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. personally. He sat in the only college class that
Dr. King ever taught. Dr. Brown said that Dr. King was "radicalized by love" and urged all of those in attendance to google King's, "Four Steps Of Nonviolent Reconcilation." He told all of those in attendance to forgo retribution and retaliation. He said, "In the community of faith, we are family."
(Community Activist Gloria Berry considers Reverend Amos Brown's Call For Reconcilation)
Dr. Brown's words carry weight in the African-American community. He was not drawn into the struggle by the murder of Trayvon Martin but by the lynching of Emmit Till. His credentials in the fight for human rights and equality stand without question. And yet his call to let go of the call to fire the Police Chief was a hard pill to swallow for many.
Where do Jesus command to turn the other cheek meet with the furious response to injustice that caused him to turn over the money changers' tables in the Temple courtyard.? Any thoughts on the matter?
http://www.sfexaminer.com/police-turn-out-in-droves-to-support-officers-involved-in-fatal-shooting-of-mario-woods/
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