Baton Rouge, La. - In a city unified by grief, a sharp divide remains between law enforcement and many in the African-American community, one unlikely to be repaired quickly.
“We’ve been questioned about the militarization of police for the last few weeks,” Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie said Monday, one day after two of his officers were killed by an ex-Marine from Kansas City. A sheriff’s deputy was also killed by 29-year-old Gavin Long and another is fighting for his life in a local hospital.
“This is why,” Dabadie said. “We are up against a force that doesn’t play by the rules. Our militarized tactics saved lives.”
But longtime community activist Gary Chambers said the militarization on display during the protests that followed the July 5th death of Alton Sterling — fatally shot by a Baton Rouge police officer even though he was pinned to the ground and seemingly unable to reach for a gun he allegedly had — may have inspired Long to act.
“We were able to keep a lid on it until those images went out,” Chambers said.
Those images, of officers decked out in riot gear, breaking up protests with an armored personnel carrier backing them up, effectively dissolved the demonstrations but hardened feelings within the African-American community, Chambers said.
“They handled the protesters like they were savages,” he said. “That’s why we ended up where we are.”
The Louisiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union subsequently filed a lawsuit against the Baton Rouge police for violating the First Amendment rights of demonstrators.
“I witnessed firsthand as peaceful protesters were violently attacked and arrested, assault weapons pointed at them with fingers on the triggers, some dragged across the cement, their clothes ripped off of them,” said Alison Renee McCrary, president of the Louisiana chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. “What I saw happening was an immediate threat to life. My and other demonstrators’ speech was chilled because of this event.”
It didn’t start out that way
On the Friday after Sterling’s death, Debadie told reporters, “We do not want to appear to have a military-style response.” That night, officers showed restraint in the face of aggressive taunts by about 150 protesters, backing down when a confrontation appeared imminent.
But as the demonstrations grew over the next two days and night, Baton Rouge police took the offensive. By the end of the weekend nearly 200 arrests had been recorded, mostly for obstructing traffic.
Since then, however, the temperature on the streets seemed to be cooling down.
“For six days there had not been an arrest in Baton Rouge related to the Alton Sterling protests,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Monday. “I remain convinced the Baton Rouge community is going to come together.”
But it won’t come easily. The tensions between police and African-Americans are real and can’t be understated.
Myrtis Williams, Sterling’s cousin, said the treatment of protesters mirrored what blacks in this town of about 230,000 experience on a daily basis.
“We’re fed up. People here have never protested before, but they are now,” said Williams, 29. She said she was sorry to hear about the shootings of the officers but added, “now they’re feeling the pain Alton’s family is feeling.”
Some signs of healing
Despite the raw emotions and heated rhetoric, there have been signs of progress here. Councilwoman Tara Wicker, who represents the East Baton Rouge parish, said Debadie has made significant strides in adding more blacks to the police force and enhancing community policing.
Wicker, who is African-American, expressed some discomfort with the police response to the protests but said she wasn’t prepared to condemn it.
“The police are making progress. But it’s been a long time coming,” Wicker said. “We’ve been pushed to the brink, but I think Baton Rouge is poised to serve as a model down the road.”
Issues involving race, the police and the poor have been ignored for too many years, said Rolfe McCollister, publisher of the Baton Rouge Business Report.
“This is the saddest two weeks I’ve experienced in the 60 years I’ve lived here,” he said. “But I really sense something happening here. If we want things to change we have to do things differently.”
For McCollister, who is white, that meant striking up a relationship with Chambers, the fiery activist who isn’t shy about his feelings towards the police and their tactics. They may not agree on much, but they’re talking.
“People are actually listening to each other,” Chambers said.
The movement that blossomed after Sterling’s death will continue, he said, adding that protests are likely to resume once the officers killed by Long are laid to rest.
“They got swift justice for the deaths of those officers,” Chambers said. “Justice has yet too be served for Alton Sterling.”
About the Author
