Bravo to Ron Collins and Rod Smolla for being leading voices for change. I hope we will all be inspired by their words to get involved in making Delaware a place where black lives matter as much as white.
A few ideas on how to get started: First we need to identify the issues facing Delaware with respect to the treatment of blacks by the police, the judiciary and the correctional system. This could be accomplished by requesting information from the police departments including internal investigations and regulations governing police practices. Gathering statistics, with the help of our correctional institutions, on incarceration rates and those held over for trial.
By conducting open forums within specific neighborhoods to listen to residents’ experiences as well as those of the officers policing those neighborhoods, we could encourage an open dialogue and sharing of ideas specific to the residents of that neighborhood.
This might also be a way of identifying neighborhood leaders who could then liaison with partners on the police force. Involving our judiciary, both active and retired, by drawing on their vast knowledge of the system, as well as local mayors and our representatives in Congress.
There is much to address beyond discrimination in policing (healthcare and education, to name two) but at least this might foster dialogue (not blame) in the hopes of reaching solutions for what has plagued black Americans since they arrived in slave ships.
Nina Pala
Lewes
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