Like most of us, Wichita Police Chief Gordon Ramsay says he viewed a video of the Memorial Day killing of George Floyd with a lump in his throat.
Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was killed Monday in Minneapolis when an officer held him on the ground, kneeling on his neck, as the handcuffed man pleaded that he couldn’t breathe.
On Thursday, Ramsay spoke out.
“I am horrified at what occurred in Minneapolis and struggle for words, but in good conscience cannot remain silent,” the chief said in posts to his Facebook and Twitter accounts.
“In that video I see a murder committed by those who are violating the very oath they swore to uphold.”
Ramsay’s statement is a rare and courageous criticism of police officers by one of their own.
Before moving to Kansas, Ramsay spent a decade as police chief in Duluth, Minnesota, and was president of the state’s police chief association. He knows Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo and other officers in that department.
But the Wichita chief didn’t speak softly in his statement against Floyd’s killing. He didn’t offer thoughts and prayers. He didn’t call it tragic or unfortunate or heartbreaking. He didn’t even say we should withhold judgment until after a complete investigation.
He called it murder.
His statement comes as two women are planning a “Justice for Floyd” event in Wichita — a protest against police brutality that echoes demonstrations elsewhere and likely will call out questionable behavior by officers right here in our city.
Ramsay said he plans to attend. Police officers should come together to say what happened in Minneapolis was wrong, he said.
Ramsay also should pledge that such nightmarish actions won’t happen here — that he’ll do everything possible to keep bad cops off the street, to thoroughly and openly investigate complaints, to crack down on racial profiling, and to mete justice for police officers as well as residents.
He should fortify his words with actions toward public trust and transparency, including releasing footage from officers’ body cameras and freely answering questions that don’t appear to obstruct investigations.
To his credit, Ramsay has made strides toward building community support since arriving in Wichita four years ago.
After a Black Lives Matter protest in July 2016 — another summer of tensions fueled by the killings of black civilians and law enforcement officers — Ramsay met with protest leaders and turned a planned second protest into a community cookout that drew national attention.
