Texas’ black U.S. House members join session on averting another Ferguson

It's not every day — or even every year — that Texas' black U.S. representatives get together outside of Washington.

But they made a point to do so Thursday, united by an issue deeply relevant to them and their constituents: relations between police and communities of color in the wake of the controversial officer-involved shootings in Ferguson, Mo., and New York City.

"It was important for all of us to do this," said Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, who noted that they typically meet in their home state only every other year for the Democratic State Convention. "It shows just how important this issue is."

Veasey and his North Texas counterpart, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas, co-hosted panel discussions about Dallas-Fort Worth's own race-relations problems and what can be done to prevent a similar tragedy from happening here. Reps. Al Green and Sheila Jackson Lee, both Democrats from Houston, came to town for the event.

Speaking to several dozen people at the University of Texas at Arlington, the panelists — mixed in race and life experiences — illustrated the way trust in police splits down the color line.

Friends of Justice executive director Alan Bean, who is white, recalled a time when he was driving on a low-traffic road with a friend, who was a minority. The friend asked him to slow down, asking how many times Bean had been pulled over. Five times in his life, Bean said, all for speeding.

Bean turned the question back on his friend: "How many times have you been pulled over?" The friend replied: "I stopped counting at 30."

"We just don't come to these situations with the same perspective lens," Bean said Thursday, encouraging more conversations between minorities and law enforcement officers to facilitate understanding.

Satinder Singh, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, emphasized that data should be used to inform solutions. He cited a telling piece of data from Ferguson: While Ferguson is majority black, its police force was overwhelmingly white. He recommended that police departments do more recruiting from communities of color, pointing out research that shows that police departments that look like their communities have fewer racial profiling complaints filed against them.

The panelists also stressed that respect between police officers and the minorities they interact with must be reciprocal. Dwight McKissic, senior pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, said people of color should do all they can to avoid causing confrontations with officers: "You can't hand the devil a stick to hit you with."

On the other hand, he said, "I want all officers to be colorblind. I just don't think you'd pull a gun on a 12-year-old white kid playing in the park."