On Saturday, a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri was shot in the arm by two suspects who remain at large. That incident follows weeks of protest and outrage over the shooting death of Michael Brown — an African American — at the hands of white police officer Darren Wilson.
Ferguson is a city that is two-thirds African American, but its 53-member police force only has three African Americans. Last week, Ferguson police chief Tom Jackson issued a Youtube apology to the Brown family for Michael Brown's death, but tensions in the city remain high.
"This is an outrageous situation. I think the entire law enforcement agency in Ferguson needs to be taken into receivership," the Reverend Emmett G. Price III said on Boston Public Radio. "I think the feds need to really come on and just take this system over."
It seems like open season on black boys. -- Rev. Irene Monroe
The Reverend Irene Monroe agreed that Ferguson's law enforcement agency is compromised. But Monroe cautioned that the problems aren't just local to Ferguson. "We're bombarded constantly by images where the police are wrong," Monroe said. "It sounds preposterous and it sounds like you're being hyperbolic, but what we really need to address is, it seems like open season on black boys."
There's a sense of outrage over policing in the US, Price said. "I don't think Ferguson and these difference places are outliers. (...) Now they're kind of rising to the surface."
Monroe added the problem has only appeared to worsen with time. "I think there is an uptick. We didn't see this in the nineties."
"The uptick is really because we live in the TMZ era. (...) Because we have all that digital media" there are more examples of bad — and racist — policing, Price said.
Boston Public Radio cohost Jim Braude pointed to outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder's efforts to address racial disparities in law enforcement. "[A.G.] Eric Holder's finest moment (...) is when he went out to Ferguson," and talked about his own "driving while black" moment, Braude said. Braude added: "We have to hear more from [Pres.] Barack Obama."
Monroe also cited another sticking point — public outcry over the use of heavy weaponry and body armor in police forces such as Ferguson's. "We have become very, very militarized, to the point now that it's just totally out of control," Monroe said.
Monroe said a seemingly pitched battle of police versus regular citizens has made people less willing to come forward to help police — and that became very clear after an officer was shot in Ferguson over the weekend. "I refuse to believe the community don't know who those young boys are. There's tremendous fear to throw them out to the cops thinking that justice will be served," Monroe said. "The very people that are supposed to protect you are as thuggish, [and] as scary as the people you're running away from."
Margery Eagan, Boston Public Radio cohost, said that during her time reporting in the city of Boston, it became very clear there was a police-citizen divide. "You can't help but be struck by shootings in Roxbury, Mattapan. Dorchester. When it's a black kid, all the cops are white," Eagan said.
>> To hear the entire conversation with Revs. Irene Monroe and Emmett G. Price III, click the audio above. The two also talked about Pope Francis' attempts to address abuse within the Catholic Church, as well as a new ABC show, Blackish.
