Black Dallas police officer sues Black Lives Matter on behalf of 'Christians, Jews and Caucasians,' others
About two months ago, Dallas Police sergeant and president of the Dallas Fallen Officer Foundation Demetrick Pennie garnered praise for helping to heal relations between police and the black community. He was reacting, in part, to a post by an NFL star. Following the slaying of five Dallas police officers that occurred after a particularly bloody week — police in other cities had killed two black men, Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minn. — Cleveland Browns running back Isaiah Crowell posted a disturbing illustration to Instagram. In graphic detail, it depicted a uniformed white police officer, arms twisted behind his back. A man dressed in black, wearing a necklace with an ankh and a pair of American flag suspenders, stood behind the officer with one hand clamped on his mouth. The other hand holds a knife, which has just slit through the officer's throat. Blood is shown gushing out from an open wound. Its caption: "Mood: They give polices all types of weapons and they continuously choose to kill us." (The disturbing image can be found here.) Crowell quickly removed the post, but not before the gears of the outrage machine began cranking. He apologized. Amid the backlash, Sgt. Pennie, who is black, invited Crowell to attend the funeral of Patrick Zamarripa, one of the five slain Dallas police officers, and to spend the day with him and other police officers in an attempt to find similarities, not differences. Crowell accepted the invitation (though, it should be noted, Cleveland's police union made threats to pull police from providing security at Browns games if he didn't go). Ultimately, the interaction seemed positive. On Facebook, Pennie wrote: As leaders in the police community, it is our duty to establish and maintain the public trust. We in the Dallas Police Department are hurting and now it is time to start the healing process by creating greater understanding in the community. My interactions with Mr. Crowell demonstrates that mutual understanding is possible as long as both parties are willing to listen. At the time, the Dallas Morning News Editorial Board published an op-ed with the headline, "No tactic more healing than what this Dallas cop used on football player," referring to Pennie's invitation to Crowell. "Pennie characterized the discussions as the truest expression of community policing: 'This marked the beginning of an open dialogue where greater understanding for policing culture could be obtained,'" the piece stated. On Friday