While the news of ISIS, the Ebola crisis and the Republicans "winning" the 2014 midterm elections have dominated the headlines in recent weeks, many of us have still kept a close eye and ear to the news coming out of Ferguson, Missouri. We've been expecting a decision from the grand jury in regards to whether or not Officer Darren Wilson, the man who fatally shot an unarmed Michael Brown, will be charged in the shooting. As the city awaits the decision, which was said to come sometime after November 15th, Gov. Jay Nixon has declared a state of emergency and has activated the National Guard in anticipation of any possible unrest that may occur if Wilson is not indicted. Community leaders and Brown family spokespersons have urged Brown family supporters to remain peaceful in the face of an unfavorable decision. All this leads me to believe that it is more than likely that Darren Wilson will not be charged. What will such a decision mean for Ferguson? Unfortunately, I don't see anything positive coming from this scenario.
In the weeks leading up to this moment, multiple pathologists have said that the autopsies performed by the Saint Louis county medical examiner and by the pathologist hired by the Brown family could support both sides of the story. Officer Wilson told police there was a struggle between him and Brown in his police vehicle and that Brown reached for his gun before Wilson shot him. Some witnesses say Brown was shot multiple times after that initial struggle as he had his hands held up in surrender. The autopsy results show that Brown was shot 6 times, with the fatal shot being to the head. With missing evidence (Brown's clothes was not made available to the family pathologist and only three bullets were recovered from Brown's body) and mixed testimony as to what happened, if Wilson isn't indicted and doesn't go to trail, we may never really know what happened. If Ferguson, whose citizens have rallied around the Brown family for the most part, is left with no answers, I fear the protests and violence that we saw in the beginning will pale in comparison to what will happen next. This will not be in retaliation to what many see as a crime. The protests will be in defiance of a system that is not designed to protect its citizens. Those in Ferguson had already expressed their apprehension with the local police force, and their reactions to initial peaceful protesting did nothing to ease the tension that has been mounting in Ferguson for decades. Sure, the looting and rioting that took place was unacceptable. But as the media descended upon Ferguson and as the citizens took note of the need to curb the sometimes violent expressions of protest, the Ferguson police department decided to ratchet up their show of force by mobilizing tanks and infringing on the rights of the citizens to demonstrate peacefully. Eventually, cooler heads prevailed over the course of several weeks and the confrontations between police and protesters calmed down. But Ferguson didn't stand down and they made sure that the attention grabbing headlines regarding national politics and Ebola didn't overshadow what was still happening out there. It is because of that, the unrelenting spirit of the citizens who have rallied around a cause bigger than them, that we are all anticipating the decision of the grand jury.
These cases are always difficult to assess because, as in the cases with Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis and countless others, the other individual involved is dead. While witness testimony and the testimony of Darren Wilson play a huge part in determining what actually happened, those testimonies are biased on both sides. Without Michael Brown, it is literally he said, she said; Darren Wilson's supposedly first hand account of what happened and then the witnesses accounts of what they say they saw. In this case, however, there was another individual involved, one Dorian Johnson. He was with Brown during the entire incident and he echo's the accounts of what other witnesses say occurred, that Brown was shot initially by Wilson at close range during a scuffle which Johnson says involved Wilson trying to pull Brown into his car by his neck. Two other witnesses corroborate this story along with testimony from Johnson that say once the first shot was fired, both young men ran off. Johnson said he hid behind the nearest car while Brown kept running. It was at this point when Wilson fired a second shot and Johnson says that Brown stop and turned around with his hands up in surrender, telling the officer that he was unarmed and not to continue shooting. Johnson says Wilson shot several more times, killing Brown in broad daylight in the middle of the street.
It is my belief that the only person that has anything to gain here from lying about what really happened is Darren Wilson and the Ferguson police department. Dorian Johnson has nothing to gain and nothing to lose in this case by either lying or telling the truth. Witnesses who have relayed a similar account have nothing to gain or lose. There is said to be several witnesses who support Wilson's testimony but have not spoken publicly out of fear for their safety. These witnesses are said to be Black. In any case, due to the lack of irrefutable evidence one way or the other, this case should go to trail for the sake of Michael Brown, the residents of Ferguson, MO. and yes, for the sake of Darren Wilson. There needs to be transparency, as Ferguson citizens have expressed concern that the grand jury deliberations are too secret and can be manipulated in an attempt to sweep Brown's murder under the proverbial rug. These are genuine concerns because this is something that does actually happen at a regular clip. Remember Eric Garner, the Staten Island, NY man who was choked to death on a city sidewalk in broad daylight, supposedly over illegal cigarettes? If you don't it's because that case is being mired in a grand jury proceeding as we speak. The evidence it is has for review should include video of the incident which clearly shows an officer applying an illegal choke hold while Garner was on the ground. Meanwhile, in both cases and cases like them, the victims are subject to assaults on their character, to discredit the fact that they were potentially treated improperly by law enforcement and that their deaths could have been avoided. In other words, those who are supposed to enforce the law were the ones that ended up breaking the law and committing a crime. Instead of trying to prove whether a crime was committed, these cases are often reduced to trying to prove that one was not.
Whether Darren Wilson gets tried or not really underscores the problem, which is the continuous tensions that arise in Black communities between its citizens and the police departments employed to serve them. All too often, regardless of the circumstances, the officers are either not charged or eventually acquitted of all charges during the trail process. There are officers that act with impunity, knowing that if their actions come into question, they will be protected by "the shield". Law enforcement officials are often given the benefit of the doubt due to the dangerous nature of their job. Yes, they come in contact with criminals everyday and they lay their lives on the line every time they put on a uniform and step out of their homes. Their families often wonder will they see them at the end of the day. This should not go unnoticed. But what should also not go unnoticed is the fact that young, Black men in many urban communities leave their homes under the same circumstances. Most of these young men are not violent men, yet they are subject to sort of a blanket scrutiny that society has placed on them. Ben Stein argued that Michael Brown was armed with "his big, scary self" and that is what lead to Darren Wilson shooting him. When comments like this are used to defend a man who not only carries a gun to do his job, but is also trained to use that weapon in discretion and only when his life is legitimately in danger, then there is a bigger problem that is not being addressed. It is the perception of the young black male in not only the eyes of the people but in the eyes of those trained to differentiate between threats and non-threats. An even bigger issue is the lack of value society has for the lives of these young men. Until those issues are addressed, it won't matter if Darren Wilson is charged and goes to jail or not because there will be many more Wilsons and Browns to come and just as many more protests, civil and uncivil.
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