Justice for Jordan, family and nation

Finally, justice for 15-year-old Jordan Edwards. A Dallas County jury on Tuesday (US time) found a former Balch Springs police officer guilty of murder when he indiscriminately fired his rifle into a car full of teenagers leaving a party in April 2017.

Nothing will bring that innocent child back, but this verdict has to bring some measure of comfort to Jordan’s family, this community and this country that Jordan’s life mattered. In holding Roy Oliver responsible for Jordan’s tragic death, 12 members of our community restored faith that there can be accountability in these senseless killings of our citizens by police. This time, a white officer will have to answer for killing an unarmed black teenager. We realise thousands of officers put their lives on the line and do the right thing each day. But the only way we can ever hope to build trust between police officers and the communities they serve is to see real consequences when any of our citizens are treated unfairly. This jury’s verdict goes a long way.

A lot of things have gone right in this case. The officer lost his job, and Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson deserves credit for aggressively pursuing the case against him. The jury now has the task of deciding Oliver’s punishment to bring the case to a merciful end for Jordan’s parents. We hope no other family has to go through what they have.