8 | MAY 6 • 2021
Dear Danny,
I wholeheartedly appreciate
your comments on the Derek
Chauvin guilty verdicts.
My heart
rejoiced when
Judge Cahill
read those
guilty verdicts
… unlike in
1992 when four
white police
officers were
acquitted in the videotaped
beating of Rodney King. I
lived in Los Angeles at the
time and watched the city
go up in flames in the worst
civil unrest in the history of
Los Angeles. So, the Derek
Chauvin guilty verdicts gave
me a sense of justice.
However, this cannot be
the conclusion of the matter.
There are still three other
former Minneapolis police
officers who must be held
accountable in the George
Floyd murder. Other police
officers must be charged
and held accountable for
the murders of Breanna
Taylor, Daunte Wright and
now Andrew Brown Jr.
in Elizabeth City, North
Carolina.
Time and time again, too
many African Americans are
dying at the hands of white
police officers, and, in most
instances, they are unarmed!
Something must be done now
to change the climate and
correct these gross miscar-
riages of justice!
Therefore, we must lobby
Congress to pass the George
Floyd Justice in Policing Act,
which, if passed, will hold
police officers accountable for
their criminal actions against
African Americans in partic-
ular and all people in general.
We must change the
mindset of white police
officers in particular and
all police officers in general
that African Americans and
Latinos deserve the same
courtesy and respect as their
white counterparts. If we
believe that all police officers
are not bad, then we must
also believe that all African
Americans and Latinos are
not bad! We must promote
community policing in which
police officers know the
residents and are not so trig-
ger-happy to shoot first and
ask questions later.
Let us forge ahead together
and bring about justice in
our community. Let us get
to know one another better
… police and community
… and establish a bond of
respect and understanding
and friendship. Let us work
together hand in hand until
“Justice rolls down like water
and righteousness like a
mighty stream” (Amos 5:24).
We shall overcome!
Rabbi Daniel Syme is rabbi emeri-
tus at Temple Beth El in Bloomfield
Township. Rev. Kenneth J.
Flowers is pastor of Greater New
Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist
Church in Detroit.
Dear Ken,
I must confess I had
misgivings about that verdict. I
knew what I had seen. I knew
what I felt was so
obvious. And yet,
American history
had conditioned
me to be
cautious about
my optimism.
I listened to
Judge Cahill read
the verdict: “Guilty! Guilty!
Guilty!” And I felt enormous
relief. But at the same time, I
felt profound sadness, sadness
that a verdict that seemed so
obvious could be a source of
celebration in the United States
of America.
My thoughts drifted back
to August 1963. I was 17
years old when my father of
blessed memory, Rabbi M.
Robert Syme, returned from
participating in the March on
Washington with Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. and told me,
“Danny, America is on the
road to justice, but it is your
generation that will bring us
there.
”
Dad was a bit too optimistic.
But it was a 17-year-old girl,
Darnella Frazier, who turned
on the video on her cell phone
and filmed the entire horrific
murder because, as she said, “it
was wrong, and I wanted to do
something.
”
Darnella did something,
and the entire world saw.
This young woman, perhaps
unknowingly, was living out the
words of Torah: “Justice, Justice
shall you pursue” (Deuteronomy
16:20).
So here we are today, filled
with hope tempered by a
profound sense of uncertainty.
For during the Chauvin trial
itself, another young black
man, 20-year-old Daunte
Wright, was shot and killed by
the police, only 10 miles from
where George Floyd died. A
16-year-old Black girl was killed
by police in Columbus, Ohio,
during jury deliberations. And
Andrew Brown Jr. was killed
by police in North Carolina the
day after the verdict.
The verdict was a historic
first step, but only a beginning.
There is so much more to do.
So today, I again reach out my
hand to you, my beloved friend,
and promise you that I will do
all in my power to strengthen
your resolve.
There is no way for me to
understand fully the challenges
we face. So, I will depend
on you to guide me and to
reinforce my understanding.
God bless you and may this be
God’s will.
PURELY COMMENTARY
guest columns
A Conversation About
Justice Between Friends
Rabbi Daniel
Syme
Rev. Kenneth
Flowers
Editor’s Note: Pastor Kenneth J. Flowers and Rabbi Daniel Syme
have shared a close friendship and brotherhood that has extended
for some 25 years. They have laughed together, cried together
and prayed for one another’s healing. And yet, Rabbi Syme
cannot think of any moment in their bond that has been more
impactful than the reading of the verdict in Derek Chauvin’s trial
for the murder of George Floyd. The two friends exchanged their
thoughts and agreed to share them with the Jewish News.
JN FILE PHOTO
Rabbi Syme and Rev. Flowers in 2016