Opinion
Winston-Salem Chronicle
I**tn City 's Award Winning Weekly '
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Pftti amoomm Anoc??n of Circulations
Another Life Lost
Last week's shooting death of Daron Bines is the most recent local
account of an unfortunate death of an African American at the hands of
police. According to witnesses, unarmed Bines Was shot io death by
Officer EJF. Piscitelli as he was attempting to break up a fight between
the policeman and another man at Cleveland Avenue Homes. The
police officer, however, said Bines was attempting to take his pistol.
Whatever the version, a life is lost
Over the past few years there has been a barrage of cases involving
conflicts between African Americans and police. The list of African
American casualties continues to mount ? Rodney King, Sheila
McKellar and now Daron Bines. The actions displayed by some police
officers reflects the racist mentality of this country's society at large.
The rise of Neo-Nazi supremacist groups here and abroad, the blatant
discrimination promoted during the Reagan and Bush eras, and the
generaL separation of whites and blacks fuel stereotypical images of
blacks, particularly young African-American males, that often result in
senseless violence.
Take, for instance, the death of Bines. Witnesses say Officer
Piscitelli panicked and began using pepper spray and swinging his billy
club at the spectators. Would Piscitelli, or any officer for that matter,
hgve reacted in the same fashion in a while neighborhood? Policemen. .
like everyone else, have prejudices that may cloud their judgment in.
tense situations. Instead of resolving conflicts in a nonaggressive man
ner, some opt to pull the trigger.
Because the police department has such a powerful impact on the
community, officers should have sensitivity training to confront their
attitudes toward all racial groups. When you combine a bigot, a badge
and a loaded weapon, you produce an explosive situation that is
doomed to a tragic end.
Police officers should also become well-acquainted with the resi
dents in black communities. Many blacks hold a negative view of the
police as overly aggressive, racist and dangerous. By realigning them
selves with the community, the police would gain the respect and, more
importantly, the cooperation of African Americans in curtailing crime.
Our law-enforcement officers must work to refute their hostile image
and reestablish themselves as protectors of the community, not poten
i tial killers.
Unless the police regain the confidence of the black community,
there will more casualties, and the traditional law-enforcement credo
'To Protect and To Serve" will continue to be viewed as a blatant lie.
Under the Guise of Students
In the two years that she has been head of Salem Academy and
College, Dr. Julianne Still Thrift has shown a concern for all of her
students, including African Americans. That was never more evident
than the swift action taken when racism reared its ugly head on the
pristine, all-women's liberal arts campus in Old Salem. The day that
four students ? three black and one white ? found racist notes
attached to their dormitory doors. Thrift immediately met with the stu
dents to show her concern and support and to express that racist activ
ity of any kind would not be tolerated.
Clearly, these cowardly acts of bigotry were conceived in the mind
of ait unbalanced individual who belongs in an institution of higher
learning about as much as a fox in a hen house. The individual, or indi
viduals, who perpetrated these acts operate under the guise of students.
Lacking in self-confidence, they find comfort in the hurt they can
inflict on others. They cherish the smug assumptions of superiority held
by some whites, since it is their belief as well.
At the same time, they undermine everything that Salem has
fought to achieve since 1783 when it educated its first African Ameri
cans. Today, saiem is continuing its efforts to diversity, with a third of
its new faculty for next year being African Americans. This year,
almost one-fifth of its freshman class is black, compared with 5 percent
of the upperclassmen.
Salem Academy and College should continue its mission of pro
viding a quality education for all its students, despite what is clearly a
minority- of arrogant hatemongers in its midst
Credo of the Black Press
The Black Press believes that America can best lead the world
away from antagonisms when it accords to every person ? regard- 1
less of race or creed ? full human and legal rights. Hating no per
son, the Black Press strives to help every person, to the firm belief
that all are hurt as long as anyone is held back.
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Winston-Salem Chronicle
Better Sensitivity Training Could Assist Police
To the Editor:
Former Supreme Court Justice
Thurgood Marshall once stated that
the Ku Klux Klan no longer wears
white robes ? instead they wear
blue uniforms and black robes to
justify the killing of our black youth.
Along with issuing long prison sen
tences, the system is practicing
black genocide and annihilation.
Presently, the Winston-Salenr
Police Department is in grave need
of positive reform. Because of the
lack of cultural knowledge white
policemen are void of the black
experience that renders them psy
chologically insensitive to the black
community at large. It is for these
reasons that I suggest that black
police officers be assigned to the
black community. In major cities
across ihe nation, police officers
have a point system that dispenses
department promotions, transfers
and preferred days off to officers
with the most arrest points. Statistics
show that black males are primarily
the ones who get arrested.
Melvin Bines
Working Together
To the Editor:
As the furor rises over yet
another incident involving the Win
ston-Salem Police Department,
where a man was fatally wounded in
a struggle with an officer, let's take
just a few minutes to reflect on the
situation we find ourselves in.
The police cannot go into many
neighborhoods in this city and carry
out the duties of their jobs without
large groups of people gathering
around to make an already tense sit
uation even worse.
As the pressure increases, mis
takes are going to be made. We are
probably lucky thai more incidents
of this kind have not taken place
before.
One may never know the reason
that Lamont Bines took it upon him
self to interfere with Officer
Piscitelli on that fateful afternoon,
but interfere he did. And conse
quently, he paid for that interference
with his life.
rather than face up to the real, and
not imagined, problems that plague
our communities in every major city
in this country.
It is always going to be conve
nient to place the blame for our
problems on someone else, where in
truth we are losing a whole genera
tion of people to a lack of education,
drugs, teen-age pregnancy, single
them remember that the people that
they need 10 reach are not within ear
shot The church has got to reestab
lish itself as the mainstay of the
community and realize that the com
munity they have to reach is not lim
ited to just their membtn.
The people who are so-called
"doing well" have to remember ?
those who are not as fortunate as
CHRONICLE MAI LB AG
Our Readers Speak Out
Sadly, we have become callous
and indifferent in our dealing with
the police, and no one in our com
munity who can hold an audience is
willing to acknowledge the reasons.
Our society is largely domi
nated by a generation of people who
know no respect for any one, not
only the police. Their respect is
measured in the amount of gold
around their necks and the systems
in their cars. They laugh, ridicule
and try to intimidate the young peo
ple who go to school, work part
time jobs or in some cases full-time
jobs for minimum wages.
The people who work- those
jobs are earning a lot more than
money in those jobs; they are learn
ing at an early age about work ethic
and responsibility. They learn that if
you perform a service that you will
be compensated and acquire a
wealth of experience that can't be
measured in terms of money. The
money will come because those
qualities are what every major
employer in the area are looking for
in their prospective employees.
Far too many of our youths are
inclined to listen to the likes of
Alderman Larry Womble, Nelson
Malloy and the Rev. John Mendez
family households, and a growing
disregard for human life.
The kids on the streets in many
cases have better and more powerful
guns than the police. Let's quit wor
rying about the way that iheygot
them and concentrate on the fact that
they have them and show no hesita
tion in using them on each other or
anyone else.
While there are a lot of people
who live in the city's public housing
projects who live in constant fear
and are in a sense of being heid
hostage in their communities by the
drugs and nightly gun shots, none of
us can rest easy because it can hap
pen in any neighborhood in Uuscity.
We have to quit looking the
other way when we see people
breaking the laws of the land and
help our police do their jobs. Our
criminal justice system needs an
immediate and absolute overhaul. At
the present time there is no chance
for rehabilitation because the crimi
nals are released far too early due to
prison eap restrictions. - ?
The black church, long the most
stable part of our communities, has
let us down. As they close each ser
vice with the phrase "the doors of
the church are open," please let
they. A lot of people are stuck in sit
- uations that are beyond their control.
We have to understand that it is
more beneficial to give of our time
than to give from our wallets.
Everyone of our young people who
are stuck in the cycle of poverty and
despair deserve to see and be shown
that there is something else available
to them. *
Money that is given will soon
be jpeni but the time that is spent
with a person who has been hereto
fore disenfranchised and neglected
will never be forgotten. It doesn't
have to be a whole lot of time
because in a lot of cases just a little
is a lot more than they have ever
gotten.
As 1 close, I want to offer my
sympathy to Mrs. Bines over the
death of her son. I share her grief
and her sorrow, although I don't
know her son and I have never lost a
child.
Unfortunately, as our moral
structure rapidly crumbles every
day, I feel that this scene will be
repeated many more times.
Steven A. Floyd,
secretary/treasurer
Winston Sports Travel Club
Minority Americans on Par with Third World Countries
Hie United Nations just issued
a study. Human Development
Report 1993, that ought to shock
Americans who complacently think
our high living standards make us
No. 1 in the world.
The report ranks the nations of
the world as calculated by a Human
Development Index, which factors
in such basic indicators of the qual
ity of life as income, education and
life expectancy.
The United States ranks sixth in
the world in that Human Develop
ment Index, behind Japan, Canada,
Norway, Switzerland and Sweden.
But the report also calculated
rankings for white Americans and
for minorities, and that changes the
picture considerably.
White America ranks No. 1.
by the index as if they constituted a
separate country, ranked 31; His
panic America came in 35th.
The report points out that black
disadvantage starts at birth, with
infant mortality rates over double
those for whites. It continues with
lower educational attainment levels.
And it is capped by income dispari
ties that leave black per capita
income at only 60 percent that for
whites.
But more important, govern
ment and business leaders looking
at the U.N. results may wonder how
this nation can compete in the 21st
century if, in effect, it is divided
into two countries ? a White
America with world leadership liv
ing standards, and a huge and grow
ing minority America living on
Third World levels.
With the industrial nations of
the world engaged in tough eco
nomic competition, the winners will
be those countries that educate and
train all of their people to be pro
ductive and to share fully in their
societies.
Those that don't will fail ?
and the U.S. is a prime candidate for
failure unless il moves fast to bring
its ihinorities up to the standards
administration's modest stimulus
package. Congress ought to be con
sidering the Urban League's Mar
TO BE EQUAL
^ JOHN E. JACOBS
enjoyed by the majority.
Seen in that light, the conflict
in Washington over spending an
extra billion or so to create jobs or
to beef up training programs looks
unrealistic.
In a six -trillion dollar economy
and a trillion-plus federal budget,
such sums are peanuts, nowhere
near enough to do the job that needs
to be done as quickly as it can be
done.
Instead of picking apart the
shall Plan for America, which
would invest in developing all of
our people to become productive.
If we continue to ignore the
development needs of our minori
ties, the U.S. will sink lower on the
scale of nations.
ButlfweT invest in the educa
tion, training and job creation that
put minorities on par with the white
population, then all Americans will
be No. 1.
VOICES FROM THE BLACK COMMUNITY
Within the past month, local law enforcement officials on three occasions have used pepper spray when dealing with crowds of
blacks throughout jhe city. And last week, a police officer shot and killed an armed African American during a struggle, claiming the
black man was attempting to get his gun. The Winston-Salem Chronicle asked city residents whether they think law-enforcement offi
cers overreact when they answer calls in the black community. Here are their responses:
Jamilla Fowler, 18
Forsyth Tech student:
"They [the police] think
just because they have a lit
tle bit of authority, they can
do anything - just because
they have a badge. I have a
feeling there's going to be a
riot They need to screen the
police.'*
Henry Karshaw, 28
unemployed^"
"To shoot a man without a
gun is wrong. They should
give (Piscitelli) the electric
chair ? show everyone jus
tice. Even if he confesses,
he should still get a life sen
tenced
John Wall, 33
construction woriccn
"They [the police] are real
quick to use (pepper spray).
Years ago they wouldn't do
that I haven't had any prob
lems with them."
I I
WBUams "Doc" Martin, 43
cook/maintenance worker
"When police arrest or
question someone, they're
all a little racist The police
department is in the process
of starting a major riot.
There is a battle between
the policeman and the citi
zen."
Towanda Alston, 19
Forsyth Tech student:
"In a way sometimes they
do and in a way they don't
(overreact). They do their
job to protect the commu
nity, but sometimes they
harass people.**