In 1994 in Lexington KY, my Freshmen year of High School a Lexington-Fayette County officer shot and killed a young man named Tony Sullivan. Tony was hiding in his girlfirends closet in the housing projects, and was in the process of being arrested. He was comming out of the closet with his hands up, unarmed. A white officer shot him in the head and killed him. An investigation by the FBI would conlclude that the shooting was accidental. That didn’t matter in the immediate aftermath. I along with many other people that lived in the projects marched to City hall downtown. Community leaders and more importantly, the LEADERSHIP OF THE CITY AND THE POLICE FORCE, worked together to hear frustrations and to calm the situation. There were no sniper rifles drawn, no rubber bullets or tear gas. The Police did everything that law enforcement in Ferguson is not doing.

Lexington KY today is seen as a very progressive and accepting city. We have an openly gay mayor, and while there are still issues of racial divide here, the Police and Minority communities have built good relationships. Good amounts of the Police force are Minority/Female, including retired Chief of Police Beatty.

Seems hard to believe that for me, 20 years ago I was on the streets of my city after an unarmed black male was killed by a police officer, and things actually were in a better situation than they are now in how its handled.