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Racial Indifference Prompted Poor Police Work

 

 • The National Black Church Initiative (NBCI), a coalition of 34,000 churches comprised of 15 denominations and 15.7 million African American churchgoers, is crying foul on poor police work amiss in the rescue of the Cleveland Four. Calls of concern regarding the Castro residence have been reported repeatedly over the past 12 years, and respondents failed to address these genuine concerns properly. It seems law enforcement can't be trusted to conduct the basic points of investigation. NBCI believes that if they had given proper attention and care to the case, Ariel Castro's name would have came up repeatedly directly and indirectly based upon his family relationship to Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus.

Rev. Anthony Evans, President of NBCI, says "Of course we are elated that these women were found virtually healthy and alive. The black church is even more elated that everyone is giving credit to God, through Christ Jesus, that they have been miraculously found. Praise be to God for his loving kindness. But we are equally disturbed as we hear more information on the investigation. A comedy of errors has occurred alongside a striking lack of concern about the fate of these young Latino women. As you know the mothers of these women never gave up hope in God, but it seems as though there has been a sense of racial laziness concerning the task force to recover the Cleveland Four. Of the 800,000 children and adult that goes missing every year, Blacks and Latino are the less likely to be vigorous investigated from white-controlled law enforcement agencies especially in Cleveland"

One of the most basic points of any investigation is to not only question the immediate relatives of those who have been kidnapped, but every layer of suspicious interactions. We've seen this investigative practice work--consider the swift application of justice in the Boston bombing case or after the attacks of 9/11. This is a true and tested investigative tool that the FBI is famous for using.

Yet we in the African American and Latino communities know that when our children go

missing, that largely white law enforcement agencies all across this country develop "racial

laziness" and forgo the most sophisticated investigative tools - Cleveland is no exception. In

fact, the entire city is permeated by the vicious air of racial inequality.

Consider the black couple in 2012 killed by a hail of 137 bullets by a mainly white police squad.

Or the pair of young black corporate executives who in 2010 were threatened and beaten by

Cleveland police during a night out in the Warehouse District. Cleveland Heights' police chief

who assigned police officers to target the Myxx's African American customers for selective

enforcement of the city's ordinances to discourage them from coming enjoying meals and

entertainment in the Cedar & Fairmount business district this year. NBCI condemns this and "all

racial laziness" with the utmost conviction.

 

 

The National Black Church Initiative (NBCI) is a coalition of 34,000 churches working to

eradicate racial disparities in healthcare, technology, education, housing, and the environment.

NBCI's mission is to provide critical wellness information to all of its members, congregants,

churches and the public. NBCI offers faith-based, out-of-the box and cutting edge solutions to

stubborn economic and social issues. NBCI's programs are governed by credible statistical

analysis, science based strategies and techniques, and methods that work.

 

 

Visit our website at www.naltblackchurch.com.