What Would MLK Think of the Imprisonment of Thomas Lane?

The reader cannot be faulted for asking, “Who is Thomas Lane?” For the record, Lane, who is white, is the most anonymous of the four lambs sacrificed to appease the bloodlust of the mobs incited by a video snippet of George Floyd’s last minutes on earth.

On a day like today, it would seem a fitting time to heed the words of another man who was unfairly imprisoned. In his justly famed letter from the Birmingham jail, it was Martin Luther King, Jr. who reminded us, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” In recent memory, I would argue, no man has suffered more flagrant injustice than Lane.

The former Minneapolis police officer was already serving a 2-1/2-year sentence on federal charges for allegedly violating Floyd’s civil rights when he was sentenced in September to three years on state charges for aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. In their great mercy, Judge Peter Cahill and the prosecutors will allow him to serve that penalty at the same time as his federal sentence.