WS Chronicle

The decision of a grand jury in Ferguson, Mo., not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown has drawn outrage and disgust throughout the nation.

Black people especially detest the decision not to bring charges against a white officer who killed a young black man. While Brown has been accused of stealing cigars from a neighborhood store shortly before his death, he never had a trial. No jury weighed in on his guilt or innocence. Yet, if one listens to conservative talk radio listeners, one would think that Michael Brown deserved to be executed.

One caller to a local morning show said that Wilson helped save someone’s life by killing Michael Brown because Brown’s death meant there was one less black young man to kill another black person. These sort of vile reactions take blacks back in time. White Americans have been killing black people for ages in the so-called name of justice. Slaves were killed when they dared to be free. Black people were hanged from trees if they dared to be independent human beings. Now, law enforcement officers are playing judge, jury and executioner, killing blacks with impunity before the justice system runs its course. Having a black president and attorney general has not stemmed this ugly trend.

City and county officials and leaders acknowledged last week that the reverberations from Ferguson are being felt here.They want better relations between residents and law enforcement. It’s a goal city and community leaders have been working toward for some time.

The Winston-Salem Human Relations Commission sponsors the Trust Talks series to bring police and citizens together; Wake Forest University has held a couple of campus forums to address black students’ concerns about on-campus racial profiling; the Ministers Conference of Winston-Salem and Vicinity has also broached the subject with programs of their own.

Local law enforcement officials say they have an open-door policy and want to know about problems and complaints. Black officials say they want to know about them, too.

Local leaders and police officials will do well to make sure that these dialogues are the real thing. One incident could spark a national outrage.

Ask Ferguson, Mo.