Lei-Chala Wilson, president of the San Diego chapter of the NAACP, and Benjamin Kelso, president of the local Black Police Officers Association, join KPBS Evening Edition to discuss what San Diego’s black community is saying about the police killing of Missouri teen Michael Brown and about local police officers’ relationship with minorities. | Video Credit: KPBS
By Megan Burke, Maureen Cavanaugh
and Peggy Pico
On Monday, more disturbing images were seen from Ferguson, Missouri.
Once again, crowds protesting the killing of black teenager Michael Brown were met with tear gas, after violating a state-imposed curfew.
The fallout from the shooting of Brown has reverberated across the country.
Black community groups in San Diego, as well as the San Diego Police Department, are evaluating law enforcement equity in our city.
Lei-Chala Wilson, president of the NAACP San Diego chapter in San Diego, said restoring order in Ferguson is important, but Brown’s death reminds her of the challenges in the relationship between law enforcement and minority communities.
“Restoring order is not going to change why it happens, and it’s not going to stop it from happening again,” Wilson said. “That fixes Ferguson, but it’s not fixing all the other cities where this happens.”
She said the goal should be working on the relationship between law enforcement and minority communities.