Posted on 08/22/2014 4:44:13 AM PDT by Kaslin
There is a lot of anger in Ferguson, Missouri, and much of it understandable. But there is also a lot of spectacle and drama. "Ferguson" has become a rallying cry for hucksters, a ratings point for the media, and a point of argument for friends on social media.
What Ferguson really is, is a deeply wounded city in Missouri. Its citizens are divided; its trust in authority is collapsed; it has one less 18-year-old and an injured policeman. There are no winners in Ferguson, just a lot of tears and heartache.
Most Americans tend to trust and support their police. The men and women in blue keep us safe, patrol our communities, stopping those who would harm us or our property, and work in ever tougher conditions. When news stories about an 18-year-old male, regardless of race, and a police officer enter the conscience, very many Americans tend to take the side of the policeman.
Something was different between Michael Brown and the police in Ferguson. The first reports and eyewitnesses over a period of several days established several key facts. First, Michael Brown had been shot 20 to 30 feet from the officer's car. Second, he had been shot in the back before turning and being shot several more times in the front. That struck many across the country as wrong.
A few days after Michael Brown's death, more facts came out. Michael Brown apparently helped rob a gas station. But the Chief of Police in Ferguson made clear the officer who stopped Michael Brown did not know of the robbery. A few days later, we had new facts.
The police never shot Michael Brown in his back. In fact, new eyewitnesses corroborate the police officer's story. Michael Brown attacked the officer, they struggled for the officer's gun, and the officer shot Michael Brown several times. The autopsy also suggests Michael Brown had drugs in his system at the time of the shooting. But all the facts lead to the same point. Michael Brown is dead, and the police officer received significant injuries in the attack.
At this point, we must wonder why the police took so long to release these facts. But the most incredibly horrifying thing is the number of people who have acted gleeful that the initial reports were wrong. "The thug got what he deserved," wrote more than one person. It is not the sign of a healthy society to be gleeful that an 18-year-old American citizen is now dead.
There are so many things wrong with what is happening in Ferguson. The Al Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons of the world swooped in to fan flames and fundraise before all the facts were known. They did not care about the facts. Democrats swooped in to register the rioters to vote. The media swooped in to stir the tension into ratings points. The media, in fact, play an outsized role in making the situation worse.
Then there are some conservatives who have worked over time to make sure everyone knows just what a bad person Michael Brown was. With the turn of facts, they have thumped their chests as if they won. What did they win? What victory is there in a dead 18-year-old, an injured police man and a burning city?
There are no winners in Ferguson. There is only tragedy. Any justice now gotten, if at all, will be a tainted justice that does not heal, but further divides. The gleefulness of many on both sides circling like vultures should turn stomachs, not wallets and voter registration numbers.
Michael Brown's death should not be political. The injured policeman should not be political. The majority of this country's citizens will hopefully continue to care for their neighbors and pray for the dead, the wounded and the divided in Ferguson.
There are no winners in Ferguson. Only tragedy with too few willing to let there be healing. Ferguson needs less twitter pundits and TV personalities arguing and a whole lot more people praying. Ferguson could use the Word right now, but too many are too busy profiting instead.
How is it chest thumping to ask that the facts have their day?
They're "gleeful" because it validates the assumption that cops are not just out to kill unarmed men for fun. Michael Brown was NEVER "part of the community." He was a thug, and died as he lived--violently.If the liberals are correct that it takes a village to raise a child, then not only are his parents to blame for his fate, but so is the entire city of Ferguson.
Not Darren Wilson.
You said it
What I don't understand is the two-wrongs-make-a-right mentality we see there. From Rodney King, to Katrina, to this situation, blacks think the solution is to start destroying, looting, and stealing everything around them. Then, once they've destroyed everything in sight, they can't figure out why there are no jobs. So, in comes the gov't to throw more money at the same problem; money which hasn't worked before. The definition of an idiot is someone who repeats the exact same experiment and expects the results to change.
No, money's not the solution. The solution is for black leadership to realize they have a problem within their own house and they need to clean it up from within. I'd start with the fact that the black family unit no longer exists and that a 72% illegitimacy birth rate reflects a total lack of responsibility by their people. Fifty years of the War on Poverty and almost $3 trillion and I see virtually no effort on their part to change anything. Quit playing the victim card, grow a pair, and take some responsibility for your actions. And it should begin by prosecuting those looters to the fullest extent of the law. DOJ acceptance of such crimes without prosecution doesn't go unnoticed in the communities. Holder should be fired for dereliction of duty as should the sitting POTUS.
If The author doesn’t want Brown’s death to be something political why is he writing a political piece about it?
Sounds like he’s been reading Free Republic
Police should probably wear body cameras and record everything they are involved in while they are on-duty.
For their own protection, as well as the public’s.
A copy should go to their union to prevent political overseers from engaging in creative editing.
I’m quite willing to bet that the replacement of a 24/7 in-house father with the EBT card has something to do with it all.
Now yours is a post that I agree with, 100 %
Really? Please explain.
The victory of truth over lies... of reality over PC liberal elite bullsh*t.
Of reality over black hatred...
A win over Poverty Pimps and the MSM stuck in the 60’s with blacks as eternal victims... a
And a total success over white democrat politicians making their bones on divisive race issue. There was victory. Sweet victory.
Yes, we wish Mr. Brown had not been a thug and a bully... we wish he could have lived a productive kind life... Death is sad for loved ones.
That's not horrifying at all. It's a healthy reaction to a successful removal of a cancerous growth. That the satisfaction law abiding citizens feel.
The Brown Family is crying out for justice for Michael.
In Michael case, justice has already been delivered.
One of the things that I have seen from the coverage of this riot in Ferguson, Missouri, appears to give an explanation of how this spark lit the fire of riot. If what I heard was correct, Ferguson has had a significant socio-economic decline over the past decades. This has effected the community in several ways; prosperous people with means of moving have done so, housing prices in response have declined, the property tax base has thus also declined and the cycle has reinforced itself over the years.
With no change to the governmental structure and declining city revenues, the single source of increased revenue becomes through stronger enforcement of rules and regulations within the city. Given that inertia plays a role in government as well as physics, without an outside force acting, the same elected and appointed officialdom largely remains from the days of prior, more affluent times - read as non-black. While there is, presumptively, fair elections and appointments, still the effect is that the officialdom no longer appears to be in common with the population.
So, without any malice or intention, you have a city trying to keep financially afloat which means traffic and all rule enforcement by majority white officials upon a majority black population. I have sufficient empathy to see how such a history can lead to this apparent powder keg!
If this is the case, a solution might be to expand the tax base by combining local communities into a larger municipality OR dropping local policing for county Sheriff policing (presumes larger minority representation there for which I have no knowledge). Regardless, I know that these next years are going to be painful for all in that area of Missouri.
Eric jumped the shark and joined Al Sharptounge and Jessie Jackass in condemning the cop.
Sorry Eric, you get no points for being one of the first to talk out of your a$$ about things you knew nothing about.
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