Thoughts on Ferguson

I know this post isn't about education, but due to recent times, I thought it would be a good idea to post about my thoughts on the Michael Brown case and the discrimination of the black community as a whole.


A recent episode of Hardball with Chris Matthews showed coverage of the aftermath of the grand jury decision in Ferguson, MO. It reported that the riots and protests were smaller and less violent, compared to when the decision had just come out. It also reported that the protesters were utilizing the daytime to peacefully protest, as well as the nighttime. In my opinion, these less violent and more strategic protests are much more effective in getting national support and attention. Perry Bacon, NBC News' Senior Political Reporter, and Marq Claxton of the Black Law Enforcement Alliance also believe these organized protests do more for the cause than the violence that has been prevalent in the previous protests in Ferguson.

The major part of the episode was dedicated to the differing accounts, by Officer Wilson and witness Dorian Johnson, of what happened in Michael Brown's shooting. Wilson claimed that there was "no way" that Brown held his hands up and that Brown started to run at him, while Johnson claimed that Brown held his hands up the whole time and "never plunged at [Wilson] in any type of manner." These discrepancies in the accounts call for some change in policy, and Perry Bacon talked about implementing the use of body cameras for police officers.  In a control group, it was found that there was a 60% drop in officer use of force, and a whopping 88% drop in citizen complaints. The use of body cameras would have indeed resolved some of the controversy over this case and should definitely start to be used, but I do not believe that this would solve the true problem.

There is an obvious sense of racial bias in today's society and legal system, and the implementing the use of body cameras would not change this one bit. Marq Claxton touched on the rationale behind the "fear for one's life" defense, and said that the legal standard should be a reasonable fear for one's life. Personally, if Michael Brown had been white, I do not think that Officer Wilson would have felt so afraid that he would resort to deadly physical force. This also goes for all the police officers that I see in videos all over the web that wrongfully treat and arrest black citizens for no other reason except for the color of their skin. The black community seems to not have the equal protection guaranteed them under the constitution, and these acts of racial profiling need to stop.

I'll end this post with a quote by Georgetown Professor, Michael Eric Dyson:
"“Black people who kill black people go to jail; white people who are policemen who kill black people do not go to jail."