André Cramblit: Police officer shootings seem far too common

It is hard to make sense of the horrors of the past couple weeks. We have seen more tragedies with deaths involving the police and men of ethnic backgrounds. Sadly it is becoming all to common to start the day with news that there has been another case of another senseless death, usually with a police officer shooting, harming and or killing a minority male. We hear about the more infamous cases that are videoed but there are numerous others that stay out of the public’s limited attention span and under the radar. This is a website that shows “Police Kill Natives At Highest Rate Of Any Race,” and Nobody is Talking About It.” This last week also saw the brutal violence in reverse with the killing of law enforcement personnel in Dallas at was supposed to be a peaceful rally in support of earlier incidents in Baton Rouge and St. Paul.

I am no stranger to these types of issues involving the police department. I have been pulled over and ticketed for no better reason than Driving While Indian. One time when I was in high school I was pulled over and rudely interrogated by police as I was running from a school playground with a bag full of sports equipment. They assumed I was perpetrating a minor crime. It took me far too long to convince them that I was actually jogging home with the balls and stuff I used as a volunteer coach for a peewee flag football team. I have been on the other side as well. My father was a policeman while I was growing up. I remember being confined to our house and not being allowed to play outside. It seems that the Native criminals in our town had threatened my father and our family for not being more lenient with them in light of the fact he was married to my American Indian Mother. The day is etched in my memory when my dad, who was an undercover narcotics cop at the time, was taking me to school when I was in the first or second grade. When he stopped to get me a treat at a local mini-mart we were accosted by one of the dealers he had previously arrested. He pulled a gun on us and leveled it at me and told my father how easy it would be to pay him back for putting him behind bars. Luckily he left it at that and pealed of in a cloud of smoke and the sound of grinding gears.