A swing … and a missed opportunity

There is a time to talk about the violence that has become all too common in our community — the fact that it feels as though you can’t take your children to a high school football or basketball game, even the local fair, without fear they will get swept up in a melee.

We need to have a conversation about how parents and leaders in certain communities have seemingly disappeared in the face of a dramatic increase in disturbing behavior among our county’s youths.

We should talk about how some young people these days seek out vulgar exchanges and fight videos on social media for entertainment — how their perception that it is somehow amusing perpetuates the behavior.

And yes, there is a time to talk about “the good old days” — how back when we were young, we would never have interacted with law enforcement, teachers, pastors, our parents or our elders with the level of disrespect that seemingly comes naturally to some of today’s teenagers.

But a Thursday press conference held by the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office was not the appropriate moment to go there.

Because nothing Sheriff Larry Pierce said in his closing remarks — even if his words ring true to those who interact with teenagers on a daily basis — justified a grown man with a badge and gun throwing a punch at a young woman’s face.

And by taking that walk down Memory Lane, by condemning today’s youths for their lack of regard for propriety and authority, Pierce seemed to use that message as justification for the mistake made by one of his deputies.

And, yes, it was a mistake.

Calling it out as a mistake doesn’t mean we endorse the notion that all law enforcement officials are unprofessional.

It means just the opposite.

We have such respect for the men and women who put their lives on the line every day that we hold them to a high standard.

We can, therefore, say a soldier made a mistake in combat without being anti-military. We can protest our government without being anti-America. We can speak out against clergy members without being anti-faith. And we can say this deputy inappropriately squared up to fight a teenager without being anti-badge.

Indeed, Pierce is correct that brawls weren’t a daily occurrence when we were growing up. Neither were school shootings and bomb threats.

You could go to a basketball game without fear of ingesting pepper spray or witnessing a fight spill onto the court. (Both of those scenarios actually occurred during Wayne County high school basketball games last season.)

The only thing that concerned you about a trip to the fair was the prospect of throwing up after a spin in the Gravitron.

Parents were far more involved in the social lives and education of their children.

In other words, there was more control.

We have seen what can happen when law enforcement officials guess wrong, when they misjudge a situation in the split second they have to assess it and end up hurt or killed at the hands of a bad actor.

But we have also seen how our fear of our changing young people has led to tragedy and injustice on the other end.

So why then, when a young black man holding a cellphone is shot and killed in California because he’s mistaken for a criminal, are those who call for justice anti-police?

Why, when a lawman or woman is gunned down in a low-income neighborhood and we express outrage, are we labeled racist?

That’s why nobody — on either side of situations like this — ever wants to admit fault.

That is why our society is almost always split right down the middle when things like this happen.

And that is why there has been no progress.

So, what could the sheriff have said to take that courageous first step in our community?

Pierce could have talked about how difficult it is to wear a badge today.

He could have acknowledged that law enforcement is all too often a thankless job, and how difficult it is to get people to take the oath.

Had he done so, he would have heard no argument from pastors, educators and parents. The truth is, we know just how bad things are getting.

And then, he could have admitted that his deputy over-reacted when he punched T’Ziah Kelly in the head. He could have said his guy got it wrong.

He could have explained — without using that explanation as justification — just how difficult it is in this new normal to determine which young person is a threat and which one is simply upset about being kicked out of the fair.

He could have said that he would ensure the men and women under his command would do better next time — that if they legitimately feel threatened by an individual, they will handcuff or subdue them.

And he could have called on community leaders — pastors, parents, activists, teachers and mentors — to help find a way to ensure this rampant violence and blatant disregard for authority stops.

But he didn’t.

Instead, he used hard-to-make-out video footage to perpetuate the notion that Ms. Kelly was repeatedly non-compliant — and inferred that, even though he noted the investigation was ongoing, the punch was justifiable.

One of his deputies even defended the tactics used by the officer who punched Ms. Kelly, calling it an “open-hand technique” and inferring that his colleagues’ actions were procedurally sound.

Pierce avoided the tough discussions about race and fear and how young black men and women are afraid of law enforcement and vice versa.

If someone doesn’t start that conversation soon, there will never be any progress.

And he missed another opportunity, too.

Teachers and parents know that taking responsibility for one’s actions goes a long way.

Ms. Kelly’s mother, in an interview the day after the incident, said she told her daughter that the way she reacted to the deputy — pulling away and cursing — was not the right thing to do.

It could have, she told the teenager, gotten her killed.

She acknowledged that her daughter could have done better.

Pierce, though, made no such statement.

Nothing — we repeat, nothing — shown during that press conference Thursday justified the punch.

Did earlier fights leave this particular deputy on edge? Perhaps.

Was he disappointed that another teenager was being disrespectful and making his job more difficult? If so, we wouldn’t blame him for feeling that way.

But again, as we wrote last weekend, teachers and school resource officers face incidents similar to the one that unfolded that night at the fair daily.

They have broken up fights and, as they were attempting to remove someone from the scene, been followed by his or her friends — who were, at times, cursing and agitated.

They have had young men and women rip their arms out of a hold and tell them to “F off.”

It’s a gut-punch. It’s disappointing and, frankly, depressing.

We wish, in those moments, that someone, somewhere would have taught these young people that this type of behavior is nowhere near OK.

But you never hear about one of the grown-ups punching anyone.

If they did, they would lose their job.

We understand that Pierce feels a duty to defend his deputies. Great leaders don’t typically throw members of their team under the bus.

But failing to acknowledge even a hint of wrongdoing in this situation only fuels the fire of those arguing Ms. Kelly is just the latest victim of an injustice suffered by a young black person at the hands of law enforcement.

And because of that, the most important thing Pierce had to say all day — about the lack of control we have over today’s youth — likely fell on deaf ears.