Ferguson, Missouri: Same Stuff Different Day It is a sad commentary on our nation and our judicial system that I couldn’t find even a single African American who was surprised at the outcome of the Grand Jury in Ferguson, Missouri. It was not because all of us had concluded that Michael Brown was guilty of some heinous offense that warranted his killing. It was, sadly, because no one expected or even considered that there would be a fair outcome for Michael Brown’s family in this case. I have not followed the details of the case to know whether this was actually a just outcome or not, but I was struck by the absolute certainty of African Americans ranging from twenty-something to ninety that there was “no way” Officer Darren Wilson would be found guilty of a crime in this case. To take that a step further, that same sense of bitter resignation extends to almost any matter involving an African American man and an alleged crime where there is no video footage to contradict the “official account.” Were it not for citizen video, Rodney King would just be another unnamed man who got beaten down by the police. Were it not for citizen video, Eric Garner’s death by police choke hold in New York would have been claimed to be justified. And were it not for the store video, John Crawford III’s murder – being shot in the back while on the phone holding a BB gun – in a Beavercreek, Ohio Wal Mart would have been deemed justified. White Americans and brown Americans are living a different reality. Whites, who are not poor (an important distinction!) are granted the “presumption of innocence” -- a founding principle of our nation’s jurisprudence. For the brown, it always seems that we are considered guilty until proven innocent and if we are killed, whether by a police officer or a self-appointed community watch member, that our killing was justified. In her article in The Guardian magazine, Isabel Wilkerson pointed to a frightening statistical parallel: In the early 1900’s “A black person was killed in public every four days for often the most mundane of infractions, or rather accusation of infractions – for taking a hog, making boastful remarks, for stealing 75 cents. For the most banal of missteps, the penalty could be an hours-long spectacle of torture and lynching. In this decade, about twice a week, or every three or four days, an African American has been killed by a white police officer in the seven years ending in 2012, according to studies of the latest data compiled by the FBI. That number is incomplete and likely an undercount, as only a fraction of local police jurisdictions even report such deaths – and those reported are the ones deemed somehow ‘justifiable’. Even though white Americans outnumber black Americans fivefold, black people are three times more likely than white people to be killed when they encounter the police in the US, and black teenagers are far likelier to be killed by police than white teenagers.” The haunting symmetry of a death every three or four days links us to an uglier time that many would prefer not to think about, but which reminds us that the devaluation of black life in America is as old as the nation itself and has yet to be confronted. All of it connects the numbing evil of a public hanging in 1918 to the numbing evil of a sidewalk killing uploaded on YouTube in the summer of 2014.” If these numbers don’t trouble you, you’re not paying attention! There is no excuse or any acceptable “rationale” for it. I long for an America where this type of inequity is unacceptable to anyone and opposed by all people of good conscience. It is a “more perfect union” for which I yearn and am willing to fight to achieve!
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 02:02:33 +0000
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