UPDATE
With Ferguson burning on TV, it seemed like an appropriate time for an update of a post I wrote a few months ago
on the Ferguson decision (below). With riots
breaking out and pre-planned protests in different cities, the question I have is whether or
not anyone cares about the truth anymore.
Admittedly, truth can be hard to find at times, but this does not seem
to be such a case. All evidence overwhelmingly
points to the fact that Micheal Brown charged and attacked the police officer who killed Brown in self-defense. Despite these virtually unquestionable facts, CNN lead with this news flash on my iPhone:
Huh? Though factually correct, can we see how slanted and racist this is? How about "No indictment for Darren Wilson after he shot man (he was 18) who attacked him and attempted to seize his gun." Is not this more truthful and does not CNN demonstrate the problem? Is this not understandable absent of any race? Yet, why should we care about the truth the anymore? The truth has become subjective. As a society we have so completely lost sight of the quest for truth in favor of fully embarrassing emotion and prejudice. When we lead with emotion and prejudice, however, you get witch trials, the holocaust, holy wars, the Spanish inquisition, and many more events in our history we apparently did not learn enough from. When some numb-nut-Neo-Nazi (which is redundant because every Neo-Nazi is a Numb-nut) claims that the holocaust never happened, we roll our eyes and call him a fanatic. Yet, why do we give credence to people who are spouting equally factually false garbage that somehow aligns to a politically correct agenda? Perhaps we are finally reaping what we have sewn for our steady diet of political correctness instead of truth - even hard truths.
ORIGINAL POST
The events in Ferguson, Missouri following the death of Michael
Brown make one thing unmistakably and incontrovertibly clear – there are in
fact two Americas. It is just not the
two Americas that we are all hearing about in the media. It is not white and black America– heck every race
in the world is present in this country in a significant number.
Calling anything a "black and white problem" is ignorantly narrow minded, just ask
the Latino George Zimmerman. Neither are
these two sides the evil rich and the noble poor, though class warfare is always such
an easy cop-out for many of our troubles – who feels sorry for a rich guy (until
his wife shows up on the Real Wives of Orange County). No, to me the two sides are the “law abiders”
and “law breakers.” It is pretty much that
simple.
As an 18 year-old lay dead in the in the middle of the
street with a stream of blood pouring out from his lifeless body, the knee jerk reflex
to anger and mob justice is natural. But we are a country that is evolving out of “mob
justice” which is almost universally 'injustice at the hands of the ignorant.' Ask yourselves, how often has the mob been right? I think the dark history of lynch mobbing
blacks answers that one pretty quickly.
So I ask, let’s assume Michael Brown was murdered in cold blood, how is
justice served by looting and rioting?
Does more injustice cure prior injustice or was Gandhi on to something
when he said “an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind?” Does somehow robbing these store owners (the
beloved American small business owners) have any impact in obtaining justice for the deceased Micheal Brown? Survey says…Nope. It does not.
Not one bit. Seriously, it is
true. It is not even good old fashion transcendentalist
civil disobedience. Instead it just further
delineates the two divisions in America:
Law Abiders and Law Breakers.
I will whole heartedly agree that the people on these two sides of America are treated differently – very differently. I have never walked down the street worried
that a cop is going to shoot me. I never
have. “Well, that is because you are white!” It is quite true that I am white and
pastily so unfortunately, but that is not why I don’t worry. It is because I
DON’T BREAK THE LAW! I pay for what I
take. I don’t use illegal drugs. I don’t think that doing a dime in the
state pen is cool – even though I look good in orange. Yes, there is still some discrimination out there
that needs to be addressed (discriminators, after all, fall on the side law breakers), but it is bogus to cry discrimination when a person is busted while doing something
illegal. Rodney King should not have had the bejebies
beaten out of him by LA’s not-so-finest, but it is inescapable that if he had
not lead the police on a high speed chase prior to said donkey-kicking (what is
another word for donkey?), he would not have been beaten. And though it does not justify his treatment, it does show the cause and effect. This is evident by the NINE times he was
arrested over the following decade where he did not resist and was beaten a total of ZERO times. Oh and let’s not forget that if he had not already been on parole for robbery with a tire iron he would not have lead the police on a high speed chase (see the law breaking trend?) and 53 people would not have been killed in the riots that resulted. Unintended consequences are a female dog.
Let’s jump back to Ferguson now. What side of America was Michael Brown on? Well he was caught on video tape strong-arming a much smaller convenience store clerk as he stole cigars; hardly an all-American
teen. Oh, he was also high on pot. Neither are good reason a person should die and neither lead directly to his death. It was a much dumber, but
perhaps more telling, type of law breaking that lead to his death. He and his buddy, Dorian Johnson, were
walking down middle of the road; you know that place where cars drive. Pretty stupid and trifling, huh? Now I know what you are saying, that does not
give anyone the right to shoot a person.
I am fully on-board there, but it is inescapable that this seemingly minor
violation was an open expression of his attitude toward you, me, and the law. This attitude can be expressed by the raising
of one middle finger – that would be The Bird…no, not Larry… the other one.
This attitude set in motion a chain of events that ended
with six bullets in Brown, two of which hit his head, when he attacked a police officer (as 20+
witnesses now corroborate) who told him to get out of the road. Why walk down the middle of the road? Do you do this? I don’t.
In fact, the only time I have ever seen people doing this is in crime
infested areas. The sidewalk is a few
feet away! Why not use it? Oh, because you are making a statement that
you are the baddest guy in the hood and the rules are not for you. People must make way for you and no law or
cop is going to stop you from doing what your 6’ 4” ego driven brain wants to do. Are we seeing the dangers of this attitude? This attitude, not his race or income, lead to Brown's death. In fact, from the videos I have seen, there were dozens
of low income African-Americans in the same area. Why did the officer not shoot them down? Why only Brown? Perhaps because they did not punch the officer
in the face when he was told to get out of the road by someone who is paid to protect us from law breaker. Even that did not get Brown shot. After the punch and then charged the officer like a bull at which point he was shot. No other poor black people were shot, including Brown's fellow mid-street walking buddy, Dorian Johnson. They were fine.
Now there is racism in this country (and I am not just
talking about the conservative reverse discrimination argument). There are white folk who do not like black
folk because they are black. I don't really get it, but it exists. This is a
real issue in this county. However, it
is nearly impossible to distinguish when real racism is afoot because the race baiters
are so often crying wolf (or Tawana Brawley for Reverend Al) when natural consequences come back to roost. What was telling to me was that as these massive
riots broke out insisting that Brown was shot in the back with his hand up Training Day-style by some corrupt
cop, a video taken at the scene of Brown’s death
recording the conversation of two local men painted a different picture. Man 1: “The police killed him?” Man 2: “Yes, it was the police.” Man 1: "No, really?” (repeat this disbelieving question and answer several times). Man 1 was genuinely surprised that this 18 year old was shot by a cop. This sure did not sound like a couple of men who were used to police busting
a cap in local boys execution style in middle street. To me it sounded just the opposite. They were so used to local law breaking boys
killing each other, police involvement was something unusual. It was in fact shocking and exceptional that the police would shoot someone.
I am sure it sounds judgmental from my seat here in white suburbia;
sorry, but that is the only seat I have. But from my travels around the world I have found that where
there are cultures of lawlessness, there is robbery, there are drugs, there is violence,
and there is death. Take a worldwide tour of the internet news and try to find where there is peace side-by-side with lawlessness
(If you answered Jonestown, do not pass “Go,” do not collect $200. Being dead does not count as peace). So as we begin to unravel the events that
lead to Michael Brown’s death we should view the events from the law breaker and law
abider lens. And the beauty is that this includes an investigation of the officer involved in the shooting.
So which would you want to
promote? Lawless or lawfulness. Riots or investigations. Justification of thugism or justification of self-defense. Lawlessness is a plague that will eat away at any community. I am
a firm believer that once our communities turn away from lawlessness as an
acceptable societal expression or norm, the racial and economic disparities in our
communities will begin to fade. The law and justice of the citizens will build a community in which we all want to live.
So perhaps my feeling on how to tear down the walls of these two sides of America can best be summed up by Jim Carey…
STOP BREAKING THE LAW!
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