Leon Ford Jr. is to be commended for his effort in putting together a recent rally in which the focus was to stop the violence on the streets between Blacks but to also stop police violence against Blacks.
Ford is a victim himself of this violence. He was shot multiple times by a police officer after a routine traffic stop in which they found nothing in his car or on him. Ford, who is only in his early 20s, is paralyzed from the waist down as a result of the shooting. He now travels by wheelchair.
Whereas most people would be content to set back and just feel sorry for themselves, this young man is trying to do something positive to stop the violence. It has to be extremely hard for someone so young to be able to handle the idea of not being able to walk for the rest of your life.
What will come of this incident remains to be seen. Will he be brought up for charges of endangering an officer which was the reason given by the police for the shooting? They said that after being pulled over and held to verify that he wasn’t someone else they were looking for he took off in the car, which caused one of the officers to jump into the car and shoot him several times for fear of his life.
Police officers are not supposed to jump into moving cars to apprehend suspects. And they are especially not to shoot the driver of a car, which really endangers anyone on the streets around him.
I would assume that the Ford family is in the process of suing, which should be coming very soon. But no matter how much money he gets, which I find it hard to believe he would not win, it will not bring back to him the use of his legs.
Speaking of Civil Trials, the Jordan Miles trial is going on right now. His first ended in a hung jury. The city however, did settle out of court for $75,000, but I understand that this trial is against the three officers.
I’m still trying to figure out how you can have a clear racial issue, Black victim or criminal, versus three White police officers, and you don’t see fit to have at least one Black person on the jury. It’s an all White jury. How could the defense attorney allow this to happen? Why is this happening time after time after time? And we wonder why the jails are filled with Blacks, and White police officers feel they can do anything they want to Black people and nothing be done about it.
Another thing that I’m curious about is why did it take so much violence for three highly trained, well-conditioned police officers who were much bigger than Miles, who was not trained in self-defense? Even with him fighting for his life they should have been able to take him down, or subdue him with little problem. Remember three against one. Yet Blacks can’t make this highly trained force. Well, that’s another column.
Could it be they saw an opportunity to beat a Black man and took advantage of the situation?
Well maybe I will be proven wrong. Maybe this all White jury in which most are not even from the city, but from the wealthy suburbs, will be fair. They will look at this and ask the same questions I did. How is it that three highly trained officers could not subdue one small teen, without half beating him to death? Miracles have happened.
Changing the subject: Common Core, an educational philosophy headed by Bill Gates is spreading across the country with mixed reactions. Many states and localities are accepting it while others, including Pittsburgh, have turned it town. I feel since the current system is not working for Blacks as a whole, and Black males in particular; it must be tried in urban communities. If it fails could the results be any worst than the current situation?
This program focuses on improving math and reading or language of which is the core of education. If you can’t read or do basic math you really don’t have an education and you will not be able to function in the real world. I’m still trying to understand why Pittsburgh didn’t at least try it in one or two schools. But the board voted it down over the objection of Superintendent Linda Lane. My understanding is that Gates is footing the bulk of the bill.
On the International front many are still questioning what should the US do in the Ukraine and Syria. And I say nothing. Let’s concentrate on Americans in this country. We should be focused on quality health care for all Americans, quality education for all Americans and quality employment for all Americans. That is a full time job, and it should be taking up all or most of our time and money by both Democrats and Republicans, and not all these civil wars breaking out all over the world. Let these people solve their own problems. We need to get away from nation building and start thinking about rebuilding our own nation.
As I have stated before help the refugees with food and health care and possibly give some of the people weapons for self defense, but nothing beyond that. Let’s feed our hungry and poor; let’s create more jobs for Americans.
(Ulish Carter is the managing editor of the New Pittsburgh Courier.)
