DANGEROUS PROTEST

This could have been Cincinnati tonight. This could have been Los Angeles,"
one woman said about the melee that broke out Thursday night, when about 50
mostly young people refused to disperse after a protest of Michael Newby's
shooting death by a white police officer.

And the woman was right.

Serious violence could have erupted. A lot of people could have been
injured. And why? Because some ostensible leaders in our community love
confrontation so much more than the truth that they continue the outrageous
claim that Louisville Police Chief Robert White won't do what's right in
the Newby case.

These people willfully refuse to recognize the profound changes in police
standards and discipline Chief White has implemented. They refuse to give
him credit for his readiness to go anywhere, talk to anybody and take guff
from those under his command in order to further his drive for more
transparency, accountability and professionalism in his department. They
give him no credit for personally going to meet with Mr. Newby's family
immediately after the 19-year-old was shot in the back three times by
Officer McKenzie G. Mattingly after an undercover drug bust went bad.

And no credit for coming out of his office to address protestors Thursday
evening, most of whom listened and then left without incident, and no
credit for later sitting down for two more hours with protest leaders.

Instead, they continue their inflammatory and irresponsible rhetoric,
suggesting that this chief and this department are no different from what
chiefs and police were in the distant, racist past..

The truth is that both they and the community should be grateful for Chief
White's presence and courage. He recognized the potentially explosive
situation Thursday and acted bravely to quell it.

But what if he had been out with the flu? What if one of his officers or
one of their horses had been unnerved by the flying objects that were being
hurled, including those that broke the glass in Chief White's office window?

What, exactly, was the point of the protest, when the investigation is
barely underway and new procedures ensure that it will be thorough and open?

Officer Mattingly, on the advice of lawyers, isn't talking yet. But Chief
White has been forceful in saying that he will: "He can't exercise his
Fifth Amendment rights with us. I'm going to order him to speak to me,"
Chief White said.

He has promised that there will be no cover-ups and that the chips will
fall where they may. Any community leader worthy of the name must give him
that chance and, meantime, chill before somebody else gets hurt.

Louisville has a police chief who is exercising visionary, responsible and
sensitive leadership in situations in which others would have ducked or
grown defensive. And the reward he gets from some civil rights leaders is
to be called a coward and a pig.

It's shameful. The grandstanding and irresponsible oratory need to cease.
Louisville now has a real chance to establish, once and for all, a
professional, credible police force. That's nothing to protest.