Watching the press conference revealing the result of the Grand Jury in Ferguson, Missouri. So far, no surprises. A) No charges are being pressed against Officer Wilson. B) the description of the actual evidence is exactly what we’ve been led to believe: Michael Brown was shot while he was fighting with Officer Wilson in his police cruiser; the rest of the shots were to the front of Michael Brown, who was not shot in the back ever; Michael Brown was charging Officer Wilson at the time he was shot; Officer Wilson had been struck multiple times in the head and face by Michael Brown, apparently before shooting commenced. C) Many of the “eyewitness accounts” turned out to be not eyewitness at all upon further inspection and repeated questioning; many other actual eyewitnesses completely changed their accounts once multiple autopsies proved that Brown had not been shot in the back; the only coherent, consistent story from witness accounts was that there was a struggle in the police cruiser, shots were fired, the Officer gave chase, and after about 150 feet on foot, Brown stopped and turned around; Wilson also stopped, and did not fire until Brown started moving toward him. None of these things are surprising, and together they construct a narrative of young black man making a series of destructive decisions, culminating in his death at the hands of police authorities attempting to detain him. The race hustling and rioting, the posturing and preening by racists in the Department of Justice and so-called “black leaders” like Al Sharpton, from day one were ginning up resentment, anger, and victimhood for nothing—spinning a narrative that was completely contrary to reality. I’m not saying that Brown “deserved to die” or that this whole event was not a tragedy. Brown’s choices, his thuggery, his recalcitrance, ended with his death--but there was certainly no grounds for a death sentence. That’s a young man who lost his future and two parents who lost their son. I do not see that as “justice done”. Officer Wilson had obviously been attacked, been hurt, and he wanted to capture the perpetrator and bring the apparatus of criminal justice to bear against him. Wilson could have waited for his back up after Brown had been shot in the hand and was running away—his backup arrived about t minute later. Brown could have escaped and lived—maybe being shot in the hand could have been a wake-up call? Or he could have progressed on to more serious and more violent crimes than shaking down a convenience store. Wilson probably was juiced with adrenaline, his fight-or-flight instinct in full force, so I don’t criticize his decision to pursue on foot immediately. I don’t know the standard procedure for his police department, but it seems to me he did the right thing: he fired no shots at a fleeing suspect, and only recommenced firing when the subject appeared to be charging him. He fired 10 shots, connecting with 6 of them; resulting in no collateral damage. Officer Wilson’s actions seem to be disciplined, conditioned, and trained. I feel for Brown’s parents—I can’t imagine the pain of having a child gunned down like that. I also feel for Wilson—I guarantee he didn’t want to kill anyone that morning, or ever, and doing so was a shocking, traumatic thing, not to mention the vitriol, hatred, and controversy aimed at him since then; this incident has completely derailed his personal life and probably his career. There is very real victimization at work here, though: the aggressors are the race-baiting social agitators and political charlatans who made sure to fan the flames of racial tension, who sparked the riots that destroyed property and livelihoods and damaged communities under false pretenses. There were loathsome forces at work in this incident, but they did not come from Officer Wilson, the Ferguson police department, or the Grand Jury process. Unfortunately, those forces are still at work, and when the protests and possible riots die down in Ferguson, those forces will not be idle—they will be eagerly waiting to spin the next false narrative of racist victimization.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 03:26:11 +0000
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