The daily protests we’re seeing should lead to tough questions on police practices

As massive demonstrations sweep through Columbia protesting the murder in Minneapolis of George Floyd — an unarmed black man whose name has joined the list of so many other African Americans ruthlessly killed by police across our nation over the years — my mind jumps back to 1967.

During that year I was an assistant legal counsel for the NAACP, and I joined Matthew Perry — an African American attorney from Columbia who later become a federal judge — to represent students at all-black South Carolina State College who were seeking to demonstrate on that campus against racial injustice.

We won that case, but a year later members of the state police wantonly shot and killed three students and wounded more than 20 others in what has become known as the Orangeburg Massacre. While a few of the officers involved were charged with minor misdemeanors, none of them were convicted — which only resulted in even more pain for the families and other students affected by the shootings.

It was also very painful for both me and Matthew; ironically our efforts to uphold the First Amendment rights of the SC State students had led to the deaths of the very people we had sought to aid.

So why is it important to relive that event now?

It’s because the Orangeburg Massacre and similar incidents over the years help to explain the outbursts of anger we are seeing from some of today’s protesters.

Simply put, George Floyd’s murder — clearly captured on video and in broad daylight — broke the dam of anger and resentment that has been building and rising to intolerable levels for some time now. After years of seeing African Americans killed and brutally beaten in seemingly unabated fashion, many in the black community have decided that enough is enough. And they are not alone: Latinos and white Americans — particularly those who are young — have joined the marches that have been going on for days.

Questions to ask

As an old white civil rights lawyer who only comes to Columbia now and then to teach civil rights seminars at USC, I will not presume to tell you what you should do; you have plenty of people in Columbia who possess a wealth of knowledge about racial conflicts.

But what I can do is suggest the following questions that citizens in your city — and in communities across America — should be asking right now:

I▪ s your police department substantially integrated at all levels?

▪ Are your police officers well trained?

▪ Do they attend refresher training courses?

▪ When an officer is accused of a crime — and especially one involving minorities — is that crime investigated in depth by authorities who have no conflicts of interest?

▪ Are police personnel records available for public inspection when crimes involve claims of police brutality?

▪ When people in your city are demonstrating about their rights or how they’re being treated, which appears to be a higher priority for the police: the safety of the demonstrators or the protection of property rights?

▪ If some people who join demonstrations engage in looting or violent acts, will your city use that as a pretext to close down the demonstrations?

▪ Will your city use that as a pretext to engage in mass arrests of people who are simply exercising their First Amendment rights?

Now is the time to seek answers to these questions, and to develop workable approaches to resolving the issues that these questions raise.

I am hopeful that people of all races will see the wisdom of bringing their communities together.

Now is not the time for anyone to sit on their hands.

Lewis Steel is senior counsel at Outten & Golden LLP, which focuses on civil rights and anti-discrimination issues. The paperback version of Steel’s autobiography “The Butler’s Child” will be published next month by the University of South Carolina Press.