Guest: I support ‘black lives matter,’ not Black Lives Matter

I am not a Black Lives Matter guy, but I am a black lives matter guy. Here’s what I mean: Regardless of any merits, the formal organization Black Lives Matter is clearly in favor of defunding the police as stated in this quote from their website: “We call for a national defunding of police.” That is not meritorious in any way!

I fully support the principle that black lives matter, and I’m for many of the reforms I know about, but I am totally against defunding the police — so I cannot support any organization supporting such an extreme, dangerous proposal as defunding the police. Give me a break!

I am for localization of most reforms because all local departments have distinct needs. It’s good for the feds to incentivize certain common priorities as laid out recently by the Trump administration. That includes incentives for local police departments that seek “independent credentialing” to certify that law enforcement is meeting higher standards for the use of force and de-escalation training. Those standards would include banning the use of chokeholds “except if an officer’s life is at risk.”

Also included in fed. changes is incentivizing local departments to bring on experts in mental health, addiction and homelessness as “co-responders” to “help officers manage these complex encounters.”

Further, the incentives would encourage better information sharing to track officers with “credible abuses” to prevent them from moving from one department to the next. These are big changes, and incentivizing allows for individualized approaches at the local level. Every location does not have the same needs or challenges. If we believe any of these incentivized reforms need national “teeth,” that’s the job of our elected representatives in Congress.

All of this is good, and if some bipartisan action is taken by Congress, it will likely be reasonable and fitting. However, defunding the police is one of the most unreasonable and just plain worst ideas I have ever seen pushed nationally. Therefore, I repeat: I am not a Black Lives Matter guy, but I am a black lives matter guy.

One more thing must be said. As interracial groups on the local level gather to discuss these matters, please do not allow elephants to remain in the room. Drop the political correctness and fear-mongering for once! Black people should share openly and respectfully, and white people should do the same.

The word is transparency, and it’s the stuff on which we build good relationships. Black lives matter, but to improve race relations, so do relationships. Better relationships between black people and white people means black lives matter more.

S. McEachin “Mac” Otts is author of “Better Than Them: The Unmaking of an Alabama Racist”