John Burris: A Bigger Picture Than ‘Bike Lanes’ And ‘Bad Cops’

Sometimes individual members of a group can embarrass the larger group with which they associate. It’s unfortunate, but it always happens. It can cause malicious feelings towards the broader group, usually unfairly.

That’s the context for my discussion of Erma Hendrix and Eric Casebolt. She is the black Little Rock City Director who has turned the issue of bike lanes on Chester Street into a matter of racism. He is a police officer in McKinney, Texas who starred in a viral internet-video by pinning a black teenage girl to the ground, then waving his gun around inadvisably, all of which was caught on camera.

Both situations connect to the ongoing debate in our country over the issue of race, policing, and the places in which they intersect. That’s because a video of an angry cop in a dangerous situation isn’t the beginning of the story; it’s the ending.

Law enforcement is a challenging vocation. I would never choose it. For one, almost anyone could beat me in a foot chase. But I also have no desire to be always on alert, knowing bad people wish to do me harm, and because it is my job to intervene in other people’s bad situations.

The emotions of the job are likely overwhelming. In McKinney, Officer Casebolt seems like an out-of-control bully. Cops like that do exist. Thankfully, no one was seriously injured in this incident. Officer Casebolt has been fired.

He was wrong to act the way he did, but I can’t guarantee that I would have acted any differently. I’ve never watched a man commit suicide on a previous call, and then be expected to act normal on the next call. I’ve never been surrounded by a swarm of people yelling at me and reaching into the back of their pants. I’ve never charged into a situation full of chaos and without any context for what’s happening. That is what he did that day. Unfortunately, he let his emotions overtake him, and that reflects poorly on law enforcement everywhere.

More importantly, his video will make it more difficult for well-intentioned cops to do their job. It will be replayed and exploited, rather than initiating a discussion about the underlying problems that caused the situation in which he faltered.

The real question is why did dozens of children think it was OK to openly confront an officer of the law, disobey his direct order to leave the scene, and provoke the response that some undoubtedly wanted so they could capture it on video?

That’s what brings us back to City Director Erma Hendrix. In declaring her fervent opposition to bike lanes, she blamed a few Caucasians of bullying, and said black people shouldn’t have to follow elitist white people’s recommendations.

I can almost agree with her, about bike lanes at least. They can be a feel-good waste of money.

But her comments are needlessly divisive and mostly selfish. They’re selfish because they don’t hurt Hendrix. Her rhetoric elects her. Her words hurt the people who might look up to a strong black woman, and whose worldview might be shaped by her thinking. Through her words, she contributed to a mindset that promotes division and hatred.

The most frustrating thing is that Hendrix has legitimate complaints, from the past and in the present. But the manner in which she conducted herself only distracted from the problem. It does nothing to solve it.

Senator Linda Chesterfield and politico Sherman Tate – both black – can tell stories that should embarrass all Arkansans. Both had to endure things that I never have, and that I could never understand.

But Erma Hendrix and her petty blindness just make the real problems worse. We cannot live in a society that values law and order while supposed leaders fuel the animosity that tears the institution apart. Sure, she was just talking about bike lanes, but kids only hear hate and disrespect.

She doesn’t represent all black advocates, just like not all law enforcement is represented by Officer Casebolt. But both damaged the perception of the larger group with which they are associated.

I’ve never been a city director and I’ve never been a cop. I think one is easier than the other, though. Hendrix doesn’t suffer from the attitude she emanates. But the children who learn from her will, along with the law enforcement officers that must deal with the consequences of an antagonistic society that’s more interested in filming a volatile situation than calming it.

Racism is real, as is bad behavior by law enforcement.

Officer Casebolt no longer has his job. His family is in hiding. He will likely be sued and financially ruined.

Director Hendrix, meanwhile, still holds her title. Maybe she’ll do something worthy of it in the future. Screaming racism over bike lanes only makes worse the problems she says she wants to solve.

It serves no one but herself.