City leaders address the “growing violence” nationwide

The Columbia Police Department, along with two community groups, held a press conference Saturday morning in what officials call a “collaborative effort” to discuss recent violence around the nation.

The conference began at 10 a.m. in City Council chambers.

Speakers included the City of Columbia Mayor Brian Treece, former president of the NAACP’s Missouri chapter, Mary Ratliff, executive director of the Youth Empowerment Zone, Lorenzo Lawson,and Chief Ken Burton of the Columbia Police Department.

Mayor Brian Treece began the conference asking for unity in the community in the wake of officer involved shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota and after five Dallas Police officers were gunned down after a Black Lives Matter protest.

Mary Ratliff, the former president of the Missouri Chapter of the NAACP spoke second. She is also the person who asked for this joint meeting with the city, police department and the Youth Empowerment Zone.

Ratliff said she was deeply saddened and trouble after the events in Louisiana, Minnesota, and Texas. She said while she believes most of the Columbia Police officers are fair, there are some that show “dishonor to the uniform they wear.”

Ratliff is calling to make Columbia a model city for the rest of the country to look to on how citizens and law enforcement can work together.

Lorenzo Lawson went on to say he sees the black youth of Columbia everyday in his work at the Youth Empowerment Zone.

Lawson said while the area youth are not being murdered by police officers, they are being “murdered academically”, “murdered economically” and “murdered judicially”. He said its a cycle of young black males dropping out of school, not being able to find work because they don’t have a high school diploma, and then being arrested “twice as harsh as their white counterparts”.

Columbia Police Chief Ken Burton also spoke. Chief Burton started with the Dallas Police department more than 30 years ago. When asked about how to recruit officers who won’t abuse the badge, Burton said they do their best to weed out “bad apples”. He also said if the environment surrounding law enforcement today was the same when he first started, he may not have attended the academy.

Chief Burton said a significant percentage of his department has been trained in crisis prevention. But he also said because it is a week long class, it has been difficult to get more trained.

Burton also said CPD officers have been trained in de-escalation techniques. He made a point not to stay his officers train in different “use of force” techniques. He said, “we don’t use force. We respond to resistance”.

This comes after five Dallas area police officers were shot and killed after a Black Lives Matter protest. The protest was organized after two black men were shot and killed by white police officers this week.

Across the country, law enforcement agencies are showing support and condolences to the Dallas Police Department.

Agencies are also changing patrolling practices by allowing, and sometimes ordering, officers to work in pairs and teams.

In recent years, law enforcement departments, including Dallas, have been training their officers in de-escalation techniques.