A long post on Ferguson in two parts. To my conservative friends, The destruction and looting following the shooting and following the Mondays announcement are unjustified, and you are right to be angered. It is also correct that Brown made several bad and unlawful decisions that contributed to his death. However, do not dismiss the protesters grievances because of these things. Please think long and hard on why the community in Ferguson reacted so strongly to the shooting. Why was there so much distrust in law enforcement that so many of your fellow citizens believe it completely plausible that a cop shot an innocent, unarmed teenager? If your answer is media hyped race baiting, please keep thinking. Their anger and distrust are real. For starters, it is clear that the relationship between the police and the black community in Ferguson was completely toxic. The polices overly aggressive and quasi-militaristic response to the initial protests speaks to this dysfunction. I dont have all the answers, but a few things to consider. 1) the city of Ferguson (and several of the micro-cities around St. Louis) use tickets and fines to fund a fourth of their annual budget – $321/household. 2) Despite having an average crime rate, the city issues the equivalent of 3 warrants per household in a year. 3) The fines and warrants were disproportionally concentrated among the poor community. In other words, the police department was essentially acting as tax collectors by aggressively issuing fines for minor infractions (like jaywalking) mostly in poor neighborhoods where they patrolled more heavily. Even if not racially or maliciously motivated, this will feel like harassment. The thing is, most of us commit minor infractions all the time. As such, the decision to enforce (ticket) becomes very dependent on the discretion of the officer – a troubling prospect that is prone to biases and abuses – even unintentionally – even by moral and well-meaning people. As conservatives, you should be very concerned with the prospect of government abuse caused by bad institutions and incentives. As such, I urge you to be receptive to calls for reform in our law enforcement policies and in the legal system at large. It is mostly a good system, but there are flaws that can be addressed and will need to be addressed. To my progressive friends, You are right to be angry. Michael Brown should not be dead. Black men are disproportionally subject to scrutiny by law enforcement, even above what is warranted by actual crime rates. Not surprisingly, this higher scrutiny results in unfair outcomes, such as blacks being 3-4x more likely to be arrested for pot possession even though a higher percentage of whites smoke pot. Higher levels of arrests result in higher rates of convictions, which contribute to lower education and employment opportunities, leads to more fatherless families, higher poverty rates, and... higher rates of crime, which feeds into the justification for greater scrutiny. It is vicious and unfair cycle. There are systemic problems within our law enforcement and legal systems that need to be reformed, and you are right to push for reforms. However, I think there are two important issues that are hindering progress. 1) Racism exists and is real, but the term is being used too liberally to describe too many different people and views. The term is used to describe both white supremacists and petite white women that get nervous when large black man approach them on the street. The first are clearly racists. The later has prejudices, likely enhanced by media coverage and movies, but also grounded in the unfortunate reality that black men do commit more crimes. This prejudice is very much unfair to the numerous law abiding black men and it has real adverse effects, but at the same time, I dont think grouping the well-intentioned in with the skin heads will help move the issue forward. Similarly, many of the biases in our system toward black men are not the result of explicitly racist individuals or laws. Rather, they can be explained by vicious cycles like those mentioned above that feed into and create biases. This distinction is important because reforming the system means understanding the mechanisms... not just finding a villain to blame. 2) It is important to acknowledge that ghetto/thug culture is broken, toxic, and self-destructive. Yes, it is very much a result and reaction to the history of racism, the cycles of poverty, crime, injustices, broken families, etc. However, that does not change the fact that the culture is perpetuating the issues rather than helping to fix them. Rather than valuing education, hard work, responsibility, and respect of laws, the culture glorifies violence and has disdain for education. The prison system can be changed to help break some of cycles of crime, and education reform can give greater opportunity to kids, but the heart of the culture needs to be changed organically. I think the election of Obama and the growth in positive black male role models is helping, but more needs to be done. And if you want the help of more conservatives in making the needed legal reforms, I think acknowledging this cultural piece is key -- even if you disagree with the conservative proposals on how to remedy. To all my friends, please keep your discussion civil. Intelligent, thoughtful, and moral people can and do disagree.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 04:23:39 +0000
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