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WHEELING -- Tuesday marked the one-year anniversary of George Floyd's death while in police custody in Minneapolis, and leaders in Wheeling's Black community reflected on just what the event -- and what has happened since -- has meant to the nation at large.
Owens Brown, president of the West Virginia NAACP, said there is now a greater awareness in the public as a whole of the challenges faced by Black males who are stopped by the police.
"One year later, there are still some concerns because it is still happening all over the country," Brown said. He noted that in the same week officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd's death, a funeral was held for another Black man, Daunte Wright, who was killed by police April 11, not far away from the site of Floyd's death.
"African Americans are still being very careful when stopped by police," Brown said. "We are teaching our children -- especially our sons -- if they are stopped by police how to respond, and not to create a situation where they will be injured, assaulted or killed."
Brown said Floyd's death came at a time during the early weeks of the COVID pandemic when people were quarantined and consuming more news.
"They were able to focus on the murder, and the issue of police violence," he said. "There was a captive audience. It was not just in the Black community, but the white community was protesting police brutality and killing. There was an awareness of it."
A criminal justice reform bill is presently before the U.S. Senate, and its goal "is to try and reign in police violence against people in general, especially African American men and women," according to Brown.
Passage of the bill "will help" in curbing the number of incidents, he said. Brown said there are many instances when police shouldn't be called out and aren't needed at a scene. Many incidents are more related to mental issues, and social workers or psychologists would be a better fit, he said.
Brown said establishment of police review boards also is critical. These boards are composed of members of the public who would determine whether a complaint against an officer was valid or invalid, and what penalty should be assessed.
He also suggested there be a central data bank for complaints against officers, so officers found guilty of offenses "can't move from one town to another and get a job."
Police officers also should be licensed, according to Brown.
"People don't quite understand that the policeman who has the power to stop you also has the power to kill you if they think it's necessary," he said. "They should be monitored and scrutinized for their actions in their community."
Rev. Darrell Cummings of the Bethlehem Apostolic Temple said he doesn't know the answers to improving the relationship between Black people and police one year after Floyd's death.
"I would like to think we are more 'woke' than we were," he said. "We should know there are still some challenges and situations facing us."
Cummings said as he sees reports of police brutality across the nation, he hopes "we are not naive enough to think it is not happening in the Ohio Valley."
"But the majority of our officers are better than good, and we should celebrate them for their sacrifice," Cummings said. "But I am not convinced those things that happen elsewhere are not happening here.
"I still believe this is the best place to live -- even if it is not perfect."
Ohio County NAACP President Darryl Clausell said society tends to "go in circles" when it comes to improving race relations.
"We start out on a good plan, but because of the way society progresses, we end up in the same place we were before, basically," he said. "There might be minimal change."
Clausell said he would like to see the same standards of accountability applied to those in law enforcement that to those in any other vocation.
"On a national level, we can form and pass legislation that could lead the way for programs on the state and local level," Clausell said. "But it comes down to jurisdiction. Every type of law enforcement operates according to the cultural values of their locale.
"Instead of us looking at what's negative, maybe we should reverse that and look at what is positive. Instead of looking at bad cops, how do we support good cops and make the environment more positive for them? The bad cops would be rooted out automatically," he said.