Ken Herman: Race colors our perceptions about police
They don't believe it now and, even if proven true, it's quite possible they'll never believe it.
The depth of their disbelief -- a troubling glimpse of the racial divide -- was on raw display when a Texas House committee recently looked into the July death of Sandra Bland in jail after a questionable traffic stop.
Officials say Bland hanged herself with a trash bag. Doris Williams of Pflugerville is sure it happened otherwise.
"It doesn't appear very much has changed since Emmett Till was murdered (in Mississippi in 1955) for whistling at a white woman and Sandra Bland's death," Williams testified. "Nothing has changed in terms of black lives mattering. I am here to state emphatically that in my opinion Sandra Bland did not cause her own death." Teri Saunders of Round Rock sobbed as she identified herself as a former Prairie View A&M University classmate of Bland. She told of a "sense of racism" in Waller County. "I'm not surprised of what happened to Sandy, and I do not believe that she committed suicide, knowing the person that she is," Saunders said, urging the committee to "look at the history of Waller County." "Ever since Prairie View opened in 1876, they've been upset that blacks have been getting educated," she said. I offer that not for the veracity of the statement but for the depth of the belief.
Sherman Livingston of Austin met Bland when both played trombone in Prairie View A&M's Marching Storm band.
"I do not believe she killed herself," Livingston testified. "I graduated, studied civil engineering and construction science so I do have a little background on knowing stress and strain. And the stress and strain on a trash bag shouldn't be able to support a 180-pound person, but I'm going to do that research on my own so just wait for that." The certainty of those who believe Bland was murdered is a disturbing metric of where we are today in race relations. It's something I'm told I'll never understand because I'm white.
At the House County Affairs Committee hearing on Bland's treatment, Chairman Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, who is black, told of a recent traffic stop in which he was treated like a "boy" by a cop who was "rude and nasty." The dash cam video of the stop, acquired by KHOU-TV of Houston, offers a fascinating racial Rorschach test.
Look at the video and see what you see. I see an Austin County deputy acting professionally and appropriately as he gave Coleman, whose car had a state official plate on the back and none on the front, a warning for doing 94 mph on Interstate 10 on July 14. The only thing I might question is whether I'd get a warning for doing 94.
The deputy told Coleman he had a previous speeding ticket on his record and had been given a warning in Wharton County last year. "If Wharton County had given you a ticket and I gave you a ticket today, you'd lose your driver's license on points," the deputy told Coleman in a firm tone that sounded appropriate to me, especially from a cop who already said this would just be a warning. Coleman said he understood, adding, "The speed got away from me." Traffic noise obscured some of what Coleman then said, but it included "I understand what you're saying but I'm not a child." "I didn't say you were a child," the deputy said.
"It's just the way you're talking," Coleman said.
After Coleman drove off, the deputy said, "That gentleman had an attitude." Coincidentally, a respected national survey released this week carried this finding: "A majority of blacks -- more than 3 in 5 -- say police have treated them unfairly." Would Coleman -- who told KHOU-TV that he has nothing to apologize for -- have been among those 3 in 5, based solely on his perception of what sounded to me like professional behavior from the deputy? Probably so.
FYI, Coleman believes Bland killed herself, "but I want to dig into it because I can tell you there are people who are my constituents who have said, 'I don't believe it.'" And, even if it's true, they might never believe it. That's the problem. It's right there in black and white.
Ken Herman, Austin American-Statesman: kherman@statesman.com.
This story was originally published August 8, 2015 at 2:40 PM with the headline "Ken Herman: Race colors our perceptions about police ."