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penpusherI am completely, utterly, totally and absolutely unsurprised by the Grand Jury decision in favor of no indictment in the slaying of Michael Brown Jr. by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. Very much like a gambler with a few thousand dollars entering a casino, anyone knowing how the system works knew we would be coming out of there flat broke and unhappy.
It really was a lot like a casino circumstance. You had a “prosecuting attorney” that went above and beyond to allow the defense every opportunity to state their case, while not instructing the Grand Jury in anything to do with the evidence and the law, and who is the son of a police officer (his father was killed in the line of duty), and who relies on the police to help him get his convictions. This was noted as a conflict of interest before all of this even began, but it was ignored by the people who could have done something to make it fair (Governor Nixon). The scales of justice tilted severely in favor of the house.
Additionally, the elements of announcing the result of the verdict at night, when the protesters out on the streets were the ones most angered and most disenfranchised, guaranteed a reaction that would appear, on television, that the entire community was filled with rioters. It makes for a “justified” appearing verdict if you were to take a passing glance at what was going on, assuming that what you are seeing is all that there is. And camera crews like flashing police lights, burning cars and smoky streets. It makes for vivid pictures on newscasts.
As they did at the beginning of the matter, Ferguson Police donned their helmets, carried their batons, hurled their tear gas and pushed and shoved people with their shields. Again, all of this to agitate the crowd, to aggravate an already upset group and to create a scene that made it appear that the law enforcement officers were the peace keepers and the citizens who protested were the lawless bunch. Even George Orwell would have been impressed.
The underlying point is none of this speaks to the true nature of what’s going on, both in Ferguson, where it has bubbled to the surface, but also throughout the country. This isn’t just a problem in the south which is traditionally known as a place where blacks are not welcome, nor the Midwest, where we are seeing just how striated these neighborhoods are. This is an issue that is ongoing, everywhere, from New York City, where we’re still waiting for a grand jury in the case of the choke hold death of Eric Garner, to Minnesota, where a St. Paul resident, simply sitting on a bench, wound up getting tased as he went to pick up his kids from school. There’s no place in this country that’s immune to it and no place where similar situations are impossible. Ferguson, MO is Everytown, U.S.A.
I don’t want to diminish this, or dilute it by looking elsewhere. Michael Brown’s case was intentionally bungled by a prosecutor that did not want to uphold the law. The evidence was intentionally not put into context for the Grand Jury and they came back with a result that claimed that Darren Wilson did nothing wrong in shooting an unarmed black man in the street and leaving his body there for over four hours.
But the only way any of this can and does happen, is that people are perfectly comfortable thinking that some people are different from, better than, more deserving than, more important than other people.
That is racism.
For all the people that claimed the United States was beyond it, having elected and re-elected Barack Obama, you now can see the truth, on full display on television, the internet, and perhaps right in your own cities and towns.
But this begs the question: Where do we go from here? What is next? There is a lot of lip service being made, comments about the family of Michael Brown and “not knowing what they can be going through, having lost a child.” But coming from the people who did nothing to secure at least, at the very least, a trial just to see if Darren Wilson was guilty of *SOMETHING,* well, it’s just as meaningful as the press conference where the prosecutor explained nothing of how the Grand Jury decided that Officer Wilson deserved to walk.
But it brings us back to that crucial element. There are people who coldly and cruelly treat other citizens of our own country as if they are members of ISIS or the Taliban. There are people who firmly believe that some humans are “animals,” and describe them as such when discussing them. There are people who are happy and pleased with the result of this case, and who feel the result here both justifies the action and will hope it encourages more and similar acts in other places.
And that’s the scariest part of this. Nothing can bring Michael Brown back. Nothing can undo what happened. But, as a nation, we always talk about being “fair.” We freak out at a baseball game when an umpire blows a call, or at an NFL game when a referee didn’t get it right. So where is the national response coming from when it really was a case of life and death? Where is the empathy?
It’s just so sad that so many protesters were arrested for exercising their freedom of speech, regarding what happened, and the one guy that caused it all had a paid vacation for four months, and I guess is going to be the next celebrity guest at the St. Louis Gun Show.
People know that all humans are the same. People are not that naïve. But until people start acting like it and proving to each other that they are the same, the results are going to be the same. And with the same results, none of these issues are going to progress, we’re still going to be shaking our heads, tsk tsking some bad thing we saw on the news. And we’ll have to do it again when the next incident occurs. And the next. And the next. And the next generation, and the next generation. Forever.
//
This unwanted thinkpost was written for LJ Idol with the prompt: Gauntlet
It really was a lot like a casino circumstance. You had a “prosecuting attorney” that went above and beyond to allow the defense every opportunity to state their case, while not instructing the Grand Jury in anything to do with the evidence and the law, and who is the son of a police officer (his father was killed in the line of duty), and who relies on the police to help him get his convictions. This was noted as a conflict of interest before all of this even began, but it was ignored by the people who could have done something to make it fair (Governor Nixon). The scales of justice tilted severely in favor of the house.
Additionally, the elements of announcing the result of the verdict at night, when the protesters out on the streets were the ones most angered and most disenfranchised, guaranteed a reaction that would appear, on television, that the entire community was filled with rioters. It makes for a “justified” appearing verdict if you were to take a passing glance at what was going on, assuming that what you are seeing is all that there is. And camera crews like flashing police lights, burning cars and smoky streets. It makes for vivid pictures on newscasts.
As they did at the beginning of the matter, Ferguson Police donned their helmets, carried their batons, hurled their tear gas and pushed and shoved people with their shields. Again, all of this to agitate the crowd, to aggravate an already upset group and to create a scene that made it appear that the law enforcement officers were the peace keepers and the citizens who protested were the lawless bunch. Even George Orwell would have been impressed.
The underlying point is none of this speaks to the true nature of what’s going on, both in Ferguson, where it has bubbled to the surface, but also throughout the country. This isn’t just a problem in the south which is traditionally known as a place where blacks are not welcome, nor the Midwest, where we are seeing just how striated these neighborhoods are. This is an issue that is ongoing, everywhere, from New York City, where we’re still waiting for a grand jury in the case of the choke hold death of Eric Garner, to Minnesota, where a St. Paul resident, simply sitting on a bench, wound up getting tased as he went to pick up his kids from school. There’s no place in this country that’s immune to it and no place where similar situations are impossible. Ferguson, MO is Everytown, U.S.A.
I don’t want to diminish this, or dilute it by looking elsewhere. Michael Brown’s case was intentionally bungled by a prosecutor that did not want to uphold the law. The evidence was intentionally not put into context for the Grand Jury and they came back with a result that claimed that Darren Wilson did nothing wrong in shooting an unarmed black man in the street and leaving his body there for over four hours.
But the only way any of this can and does happen, is that people are perfectly comfortable thinking that some people are different from, better than, more deserving than, more important than other people.
That is racism.
For all the people that claimed the United States was beyond it, having elected and re-elected Barack Obama, you now can see the truth, on full display on television, the internet, and perhaps right in your own cities and towns.
But this begs the question: Where do we go from here? What is next? There is a lot of lip service being made, comments about the family of Michael Brown and “not knowing what they can be going through, having lost a child.” But coming from the people who did nothing to secure at least, at the very least, a trial just to see if Darren Wilson was guilty of *SOMETHING,* well, it’s just as meaningful as the press conference where the prosecutor explained nothing of how the Grand Jury decided that Officer Wilson deserved to walk.
But it brings us back to that crucial element. There are people who coldly and cruelly treat other citizens of our own country as if they are members of ISIS or the Taliban. There are people who firmly believe that some humans are “animals,” and describe them as such when discussing them. There are people who are happy and pleased with the result of this case, and who feel the result here both justifies the action and will hope it encourages more and similar acts in other places.
And that’s the scariest part of this. Nothing can bring Michael Brown back. Nothing can undo what happened. But, as a nation, we always talk about being “fair.” We freak out at a baseball game when an umpire blows a call, or at an NFL game when a referee didn’t get it right. So where is the national response coming from when it really was a case of life and death? Where is the empathy?
It’s just so sad that so many protesters were arrested for exercising their freedom of speech, regarding what happened, and the one guy that caused it all had a paid vacation for four months, and I guess is going to be the next celebrity guest at the St. Louis Gun Show.
People know that all humans are the same. People are not that naïve. But until people start acting like it and proving to each other that they are the same, the results are going to be the same. And with the same results, none of these issues are going to progress, we’re still going to be shaking our heads, tsk tsking some bad thing we saw on the news. And we’ll have to do it again when the next incident occurs. And the next. And the next. And the next generation, and the next generation. Forever.
//
This unwanted thinkpost was written for LJ Idol with the prompt: Gauntlet
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Date: 2014-11-26 05:12 am (UTC)My intention this week was to write a piece about my time at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, or working as a clown during the holidays at FAO Schwarz. You understand why I didn't want to write this. But thanks for reading and for your thoughts.