Original Post
America is in trouble. Anyone who does not believe this needs to take a serious look around. This Ferguson Missouri event is very alarming on a number of levels. I'm going to attempt to analyze two of them.
First lets review the actual event in Ferguson. No not the shooting of young Mr. Brown but the aftermath. In the US legal system a grand Jury is used as an impartial community body that carefully studies evidence around a crime at the behest of the presiding DA. Their primary responsibility is to decide whether that evidence is sufficient and compelling enough to warrant charges being brought against a suspect. They are not a regular jury and they do their work in complete privacy.
So was it appropriate for the Missouri DA to call a grand jury to investigate this event/crime? Some say it was not but I disagree. In light of the fact that our President overreacted to this event and involved the Federal Justice department I think the DA was left with no other choice. Even our very biased Attorney general agreed that the grand jury was the right course of action. Keep in mind this was no normal grand jury since the Feds were looking over their shoulder and the nation was going to scrutinize everything they did post mortem. I would not want that responsibility and I am sure the jurors felt the stress.
With this as a backdrop, I am sure the jurors and the DA's office were actually somewhat biased or afraid. What I mean is they would be leaning to driving an indictment as this would be the clear popular course of action. So the decision should show us a couple of things. First the evidence presented to the grand jury must have been pretty compelling against an indictment. Second these folks really wanted to get to the truth and we should respect their courage. I know there are many who believe that the DA is always in bed with the police and thus they were biased toward Officer Wilson. Again I disagree. With a black very biased Attorney general watching me I would quickly lose any bias I had if I were the DA. Additionally, the grand jury members were chosen in May of this year long before the incident and long before all the racial issues. So realistically they were as unbiased as we could hope for.
Based on all this I have to accept their recommendation and believe that Officer Wilson was justified in shooting Mr. Brown. On that note I guess I am confused a bit. If you hit a police officer several times, argue with him, disobey his instructions and then finally charge at him, what do you expect will happen to you? The only question that needs to be asked at this juncture is why the officer never had a Taser? This seems strange to me and would have been the right tool to quell this situation quickly and without injury. That said without such a weapon and with a angry, violent suspect considerably larger than the officer what choice did he have?
Did he fire too many shots? Maybe he did but we cannot know what is like to be in that situation and rather than blame him we should be spending our energy on figuring out why so many of our youths break the law and force these kinds of incidents to happen?
Now to the much more serious and troubling issue for America. Sadly but nearly everyday in America we see violent crime and our police officers are faced with life and death situations. Being human from time to time they make mistakes but for the most part they are well trained and very good at their jobs. Remember if it involves humans it can't be perfect. Hence the term "human error".
Many times every year young men in our society break the law and challenge the police. In many cities and in many incidents they lose their lives tragically. Those young men are of every race and creed. While it is true that our prisons have disportionate amounts of black inmates -more than any other race - does not mean it is because our sysem is racist. I think it really a factor of poverty, parenting and education. We need to get to these root cause rather than spend our time trying to "lynch" a single police officer who has been leaglly cleared by a grand jury. By the way Officer Wilsons life as he knew it is over. No he is not dead (yet) but he can never work as an officer again, he will be a marked man for the rest of his life and he will live in fear forever. Probably a punishment much worse than jail.And he got that for doing his job.
So we have officer involved shootings in many cities against many races but we have chosen this one to fixate on. Why? The answer is because our President, a past community organizer, has decided to make this event a national issue. He did this by involving the federal government, getting his office involved and by addressing it as a national issue. No President has ever done this before. It is a local issue and while tragic, happens to many families in the US every year. Obama is a very smart man and he has used this as a platform to raise this to a national issue so that he can make the country focus on what he sees as a racial problem, without having to address it as such. This leadership by subterfuge is abhorrent and very dangerous. This is not the way the President of US should act and we should all be very disappointed (again) in his behavior.
This behavior around this incident and prior the Trayvon martin case, shows that our President is biased. He is abusing the power of his office and misleading the American people. He has created a racial divide in this country we have not seen in decades. His actions and those of his Attorney General are not acceptable and embarrassing to the country on the world stage. He needs to stay out of local issues like this at least in a public sense. Sure he can make a call or offer advice privately to locals involved but he can't use federal resources to influence and irritate a volatile situation like this. Shame on him.
His behavior has set back race relations in this country a lot. His clear bias is not the way a President acts. He should have no bias except in favor of all Americans. Privately he is entitled to his opinions and beliefs but not in his role as President. Leaders bring about compromise and consensus they do not create vitrial and divisiveness. They do not show favoritism to one race over another. They Unite not divide.
So where do we go from here? We have to heal this country. We must let calmer more reasoned leaders come to the forefront. We must address the root of the problems - poverty, education and parenting. Pouring acid on a gapping wound will not heal the patient Mr President. We must pray for the Brown family, offer them comfort. We must pray for Officer Wilson and his family. We must bring this community back together. We must heal and progress not fight and regress.
We can protest peacefully. we can use the vote to change the laws that govern us, we can change our leaders and we can improve our system but we can't "burn this bitch down" in the owrds of one of Mr. Browns relatives.
I know first hand that there is racial bias in some police forces as there is in some hospitals, law offices and airlines. I have been a victim of this racial predjudice several times and it is horrible. I can't describe how it makes you feel how degrading it is. But I can tell you how I handled it and how that has worked for me. Always remember we are human and by God's design we are flawed. It is up to us to use our greatest gift - free will - to overcome those flaws.
Knowing this and knowing that police officers are empowered with authority over us, including the use of deadly force in certain situations, we must modify our behavior to avoid conflict. Then we can work within the system to affect real change. I was advised many years ago by a wise defense attorney in Houston, TX after my third racial confrontation with the police, what I should do. First, he said carry my card in your wallet so you can reach me. Second, obey exactly what the officer says - even if it offends you. Third, address the officer with respect and do not ever threaten him verbally or physically. Fourth, remember every detail you can most importantly anyone that witnesses your event. Fifth, obey the law at all times.
I am 57 years old far from those harrowing incidents in my younger years. Far from the racial slurs, far from being mistreated and far from being a nieve student. But I still have a deeper fear of the police than my white American friends. Is this sad? Sure it is but in the grand scheme of things it is not a big deal. Cancer is a big deal; child abuse is big deal and terrorism is a big deal! My point is simple if you are a minority (to be defined below) make the extra effort to obey the law and watch out for the police. Don't push the limits -that's just plain stupid.
Who is a minority? It literally can be anyone. But in most circumstances it is a person of color or foreign decent. Those of us in that category need to be mindful. We also need to continue the work we have done to change racial prejudice in this country through the proper channels and with our votes. This is not cowardice it is reasoned progress. Dr. King would be proud of all we have done to improve race relations but he would be disappointed in the riots in Ferguson.
Additional Update
Since I drafted the above blog entry a week ago we have seen another police killing on the national scene. The police in Statton Island NY put a 400 pound black man in a choke hold and he subsequently died. The video of the event has been all over the social media. Another grand jury was convened and they have decided not to press any charges in this case. I like many are upset with this decision.
In case any of you thought I was biased in my original post about Ferguson above, hear this - the grand jury should have indicted this police officer (s). Why is this different than Freguson? First there is specific video evidence of what happened along with lots of eye witnesses. Second, it is clear that the suspect while being subdued repeatedly told officers that he "could not breathe". In legal terms this means he surrendered and asked for help. Third, the suspect was not threatening the officers in any way - actually he asked them to just let him go home. Fourth, there were many charges that the grand jury could have indicted him for and several seemed to fit.
I think the charge should have been negligent homicide. Since the officer had no intention of killing the suspect it was not intentional but the actions of the officer did lead to his death. The officer used a procedure the NYPD says is unlawful and in doing so was negligent. I applaud the peaceful demonstrations in NY and thank the family of the deceased for stating publicly that this is not about race but about negligence. This officer and his associates went too far and there should be some consequences for their mistakes. Police forces need to be held accountable for mistakes just like doctors, teachers and insurance agents.
Lets all learn from these tragic events and work together to create better policing in our cities. Lets not spend time on racial divisions and criticisms. Let us heal and improve. We are one people - Americans!
America is in trouble. Anyone who does not believe this needs to take a serious look around. This Ferguson Missouri event is very alarming on a number of levels. I'm going to attempt to analyze two of them.
First lets review the actual event in Ferguson. No not the shooting of young Mr. Brown but the aftermath. In the US legal system a grand Jury is used as an impartial community body that carefully studies evidence around a crime at the behest of the presiding DA. Their primary responsibility is to decide whether that evidence is sufficient and compelling enough to warrant charges being brought against a suspect. They are not a regular jury and they do their work in complete privacy.
So was it appropriate for the Missouri DA to call a grand jury to investigate this event/crime? Some say it was not but I disagree. In light of the fact that our President overreacted to this event and involved the Federal Justice department I think the DA was left with no other choice. Even our very biased Attorney general agreed that the grand jury was the right course of action. Keep in mind this was no normal grand jury since the Feds were looking over their shoulder and the nation was going to scrutinize everything they did post mortem. I would not want that responsibility and I am sure the jurors felt the stress.
With this as a backdrop, I am sure the jurors and the DA's office were actually somewhat biased or afraid. What I mean is they would be leaning to driving an indictment as this would be the clear popular course of action. So the decision should show us a couple of things. First the evidence presented to the grand jury must have been pretty compelling against an indictment. Second these folks really wanted to get to the truth and we should respect their courage. I know there are many who believe that the DA is always in bed with the police and thus they were biased toward Officer Wilson. Again I disagree. With a black very biased Attorney general watching me I would quickly lose any bias I had if I were the DA. Additionally, the grand jury members were chosen in May of this year long before the incident and long before all the racial issues. So realistically they were as unbiased as we could hope for.
Based on all this I have to accept their recommendation and believe that Officer Wilson was justified in shooting Mr. Brown. On that note I guess I am confused a bit. If you hit a police officer several times, argue with him, disobey his instructions and then finally charge at him, what do you expect will happen to you? The only question that needs to be asked at this juncture is why the officer never had a Taser? This seems strange to me and would have been the right tool to quell this situation quickly and without injury. That said without such a weapon and with a angry, violent suspect considerably larger than the officer what choice did he have?
Did he fire too many shots? Maybe he did but we cannot know what is like to be in that situation and rather than blame him we should be spending our energy on figuring out why so many of our youths break the law and force these kinds of incidents to happen?
Now to the much more serious and troubling issue for America. Sadly but nearly everyday in America we see violent crime and our police officers are faced with life and death situations. Being human from time to time they make mistakes but for the most part they are well trained and very good at their jobs. Remember if it involves humans it can't be perfect. Hence the term "human error".
Many times every year young men in our society break the law and challenge the police. In many cities and in many incidents they lose their lives tragically. Those young men are of every race and creed. While it is true that our prisons have disportionate amounts of black inmates -more than any other race - does not mean it is because our sysem is racist. I think it really a factor of poverty, parenting and education. We need to get to these root cause rather than spend our time trying to "lynch" a single police officer who has been leaglly cleared by a grand jury. By the way Officer Wilsons life as he knew it is over. No he is not dead (yet) but he can never work as an officer again, he will be a marked man for the rest of his life and he will live in fear forever. Probably a punishment much worse than jail.And he got that for doing his job.
So we have officer involved shootings in many cities against many races but we have chosen this one to fixate on. Why? The answer is because our President, a past community organizer, has decided to make this event a national issue. He did this by involving the federal government, getting his office involved and by addressing it as a national issue. No President has ever done this before. It is a local issue and while tragic, happens to many families in the US every year. Obama is a very smart man and he has used this as a platform to raise this to a national issue so that he can make the country focus on what he sees as a racial problem, without having to address it as such. This leadership by subterfuge is abhorrent and very dangerous. This is not the way the President of US should act and we should all be very disappointed (again) in his behavior.
This behavior around this incident and prior the Trayvon martin case, shows that our President is biased. He is abusing the power of his office and misleading the American people. He has created a racial divide in this country we have not seen in decades. His actions and those of his Attorney General are not acceptable and embarrassing to the country on the world stage. He needs to stay out of local issues like this at least in a public sense. Sure he can make a call or offer advice privately to locals involved but he can't use federal resources to influence and irritate a volatile situation like this. Shame on him.
His behavior has set back race relations in this country a lot. His clear bias is not the way a President acts. He should have no bias except in favor of all Americans. Privately he is entitled to his opinions and beliefs but not in his role as President. Leaders bring about compromise and consensus they do not create vitrial and divisiveness. They do not show favoritism to one race over another. They Unite not divide.
So where do we go from here? We have to heal this country. We must let calmer more reasoned leaders come to the forefront. We must address the root of the problems - poverty, education and parenting. Pouring acid on a gapping wound will not heal the patient Mr President. We must pray for the Brown family, offer them comfort. We must pray for Officer Wilson and his family. We must bring this community back together. We must heal and progress not fight and regress.
We can protest peacefully. we can use the vote to change the laws that govern us, we can change our leaders and we can improve our system but we can't "burn this bitch down" in the owrds of one of Mr. Browns relatives.
I know first hand that there is racial bias in some police forces as there is in some hospitals, law offices and airlines. I have been a victim of this racial predjudice several times and it is horrible. I can't describe how it makes you feel how degrading it is. But I can tell you how I handled it and how that has worked for me. Always remember we are human and by God's design we are flawed. It is up to us to use our greatest gift - free will - to overcome those flaws.
Knowing this and knowing that police officers are empowered with authority over us, including the use of deadly force in certain situations, we must modify our behavior to avoid conflict. Then we can work within the system to affect real change. I was advised many years ago by a wise defense attorney in Houston, TX after my third racial confrontation with the police, what I should do. First, he said carry my card in your wallet so you can reach me. Second, obey exactly what the officer says - even if it offends you. Third, address the officer with respect and do not ever threaten him verbally or physically. Fourth, remember every detail you can most importantly anyone that witnesses your event. Fifth, obey the law at all times.
I am 57 years old far from those harrowing incidents in my younger years. Far from the racial slurs, far from being mistreated and far from being a nieve student. But I still have a deeper fear of the police than my white American friends. Is this sad? Sure it is but in the grand scheme of things it is not a big deal. Cancer is a big deal; child abuse is big deal and terrorism is a big deal! My point is simple if you are a minority (to be defined below) make the extra effort to obey the law and watch out for the police. Don't push the limits -that's just plain stupid.
Who is a minority? It literally can be anyone. But in most circumstances it is a person of color or foreign decent. Those of us in that category need to be mindful. We also need to continue the work we have done to change racial prejudice in this country through the proper channels and with our votes. This is not cowardice it is reasoned progress. Dr. King would be proud of all we have done to improve race relations but he would be disappointed in the riots in Ferguson.
Additional Update
Since I drafted the above blog entry a week ago we have seen another police killing on the national scene. The police in Statton Island NY put a 400 pound black man in a choke hold and he subsequently died. The video of the event has been all over the social media. Another grand jury was convened and they have decided not to press any charges in this case. I like many are upset with this decision.
In case any of you thought I was biased in my original post about Ferguson above, hear this - the grand jury should have indicted this police officer (s). Why is this different than Freguson? First there is specific video evidence of what happened along with lots of eye witnesses. Second, it is clear that the suspect while being subdued repeatedly told officers that he "could not breathe". In legal terms this means he surrendered and asked for help. Third, the suspect was not threatening the officers in any way - actually he asked them to just let him go home. Fourth, there were many charges that the grand jury could have indicted him for and several seemed to fit.
I think the charge should have been negligent homicide. Since the officer had no intention of killing the suspect it was not intentional but the actions of the officer did lead to his death. The officer used a procedure the NYPD says is unlawful and in doing so was negligent. I applaud the peaceful demonstrations in NY and thank the family of the deceased for stating publicly that this is not about race but about negligence. This officer and his associates went too far and there should be some consequences for their mistakes. Police forces need to be held accountable for mistakes just like doctors, teachers and insurance agents.
Lets all learn from these tragic events and work together to create better policing in our cities. Lets not spend time on racial divisions and criticisms. Let us heal and improve. We are one people - Americans!