Im looking at this video, put up by my friend Michael McKay, who was right around the corner as this was taking place, and several thoughts go through my mind. One is that this is not a big group of people and certainly not a threatening looking group of people. It appears there are almost as many cops as people standing on the sidewalk. Another is that I think that, as the cops stand across the street in a stance that is clearly meant to be threatening, I wonder, why arent they talking to these people on the street? Wouldnt that be a better thing to do? If young white men were being arrested, beaten, and killed at the rate of young black men, people would be up in arms. People would be wondering what is going on? I heard on the radio, right around the time of Michael Browns death, that there was a young black man shot and killed in New York City. The aftermath proceeded really differently. People from the police department met with community leaders and began talking with them about how to prevent this from happening again. There was a march in the street that took place, but the police department cooperated with the demonstrators and it stayed peaceful. Someone who was present said that the other night, when buildings had windows broken (though the shops were not looted, according to the news on the radio) on South Grand, that the vandalism was done by a small group of young men not associated with the protestors, that the protesters were a block away, and that police who were between the protesters and the vandals did nothing to stop the vandals. The next day I was listening to KWMU, the local NPR affiliate, and a reporter who was on the scene said the same thing - that the vandals did not appear to be associated with the protesters. There is something fundamentally wrong when some people are seen as disposable. https://youtube/watch?v=uf-z9zbeRys
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 09:25:40 +0000
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