QUESTIONS

This is a hurting and angry community.

Reason and restraint have held sway in the days since the tragic
shooting death of Kenneth Walker, and we would expect no less. Indeed,
it may well be that the bonds still holding us together as a
"community" at all are the anger and the hurt, which are widely shared
- -- more widely than may be apparent.

But nobody should be lulled into mistaking shared grief for healing.
Whatever the bonds that still bind Columbus, especially across racial
lines, they can be sustained over the long term only by strong strands
of trust.

Trust is in short supply right now.

The only thing that can restore it is a full accounting of that
terrible night last week, and a full and fair reckoning for all involved.

It means, first and most obviously, finding out exactly what happened.
This involves not just the actions of the Sheriff's Department and
Metro Narcotics Task Force, but those of the drug suspects at the
apartment and those of the unarmed and apparently guiltless men in the
car as well. Is that fair? Probably not; it will more than likely
involve public dissection of the actions of innocent people who have
already suffered. But it's essential that the events of that night be
known and understood.

It means finding out how it happened. What are the procedures that
officers in such a situation are supposed to follow? How are these
officers trained, and by whom? How sound are their tactics? Have there
been previous complaints, against the Sheriff's Department or Metro
Narcotics, having to do with procedures? If so, how and by whom were
those complaints dealt with? What threats do these officers face? How
does law enforcement get information like that on which officers
proceeded in this case? How is such information assessed and
documented, and what precautions are taken in the event that it proves
erroneous?

It means finding out why it happened, and this one may well go beyond
the parameters of law enforcement and into the broader questions of
some of the assumptions we make. A white citizen can say, and be
sincere -- and indeed, be right -- that "I am not a racist," and yet
have no feel for that special fear parents of color experience every
time their children -- especially their male children -- head out of
the house and into a world that seems to demonstrate every day that it
holds a special set of threats and dangers for them.

Understanding the different ways we perceive and experience the world
is just as important as understanding a tragedy that may have nothing
or everything to do with those differences.

Only when we get answers can any real healing take place. And we all
need to be prepared for the likelihood that some of them will be
answers we won't like.

- -- Dusty Nix, for the editorial board