Rioting won’t solve social injustices
Nothing says you oppose social injustice as well as burning down a pizza
joint and looting big-screen TVs from a business in your own neighborhood.
Well, there may not have been any big-screen TVs stolen during Monday night’s rampage in Ferguson, Mo., but businesses were looted and burned as protesters vented their frustration at a grand jury decision to not indict Darren Wilson, the white police officer who on Aug. 9 shot black teenager Michael Brown to death. I’ve always been baffled by such action. I appreciate the frustration, the sense of powerlessness and of repeatedly being pushed down by “the man.” And I understand the anger that can grow for weeks, months, even years. But I never will understand how turning on your own neighborhood, your own community will in any way help relieve the situation.
During the 1960s, it was Detroit and Watts, after the Rodney King case it was Los Angeles. In each case, and countless others in the interim, the anger always has turned inward to the community. Again, how does burning your neighbor’s business, looting your neighbor’s store, destroying your neighbor’s home create social justice?
There was one account from Ferguson of a black business owner defending his shop against rioters, and another story of a man arriving at work Tuesday morning only to find smoldering rubble where his job used to be. Where is the justice for them? What had they done to warrant such punishment, other than to live and work in Ferguson? They didn’t shoot Michael Brown, they weren’t part of the grand jury handing down the “wrong” decision. They were victimized by protesters as much as the protesters contend Michael Brown and the community were victimized by the system.
In a strictly devil’s advocate role here, why didn’t they vent their anger and frustration on the courthouse, city hall, or even the police station? Those symbolize their alleged oppression, those are the places where the people they contend prey on them and keep them down are to be found, not in a black-owned pharmacy or clothing store. Or, still as a devil’s advocate, why didn’t they take their rage into white neighborhoods?
I don’t know, and I don’t think we ever will know the answer to such questions. Perhaps it’s something white America never will understand.
There are more than enough pundits and “experts” dissecting the grand jury action, speculating and bloviating on each little intricacy they think they’ve found, attempting to read the minds of the grand jurors who are the only ones to have seen all the evidence, heard all the testimony and weighed everything before reaching their decision. No one on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, The Blaze or anywhere else knows what went on in the grand jury or in the grand jurors’ minds.
What happened in Ferguson, like what’s happened in too many other instances, has been tried in the court of public opinion without regards to facts and hard evidence. Our 24/7 news cycle with its hunger to find something new to keep its audience tuned in is turning the society and justice system into warped reality programming. Instead of presenting facts and letting people reach conclusions on their own, the media constantly interprets the facts for us, saving us the trouble of using our own minds to make determinations. Instead of reporting a story, too many in the media manipulate it to fit various viewpoints.
Don’t forget the publicity vultures, those who prey on tragic situations to press their own agendas and feed their own egos on the pretense of seeking justice for a community they’d never set foot in otherwise. Why weren’t they in Ferguson or any of the other cities beset by such division to prevent the spark setting off the powder keg? Why does their presence incite more than calms situations? And where are they after everything they’ve egged on hits the fan and a community is in ashes?
It’s all academic now whether what’s happened in Ferguson could have been prevented. All the points where a bad decision, or a wrong decision, was made will be found in the ongoing analysis, and each will be highlighted as a warning sign for other communities that may find themselves in similar circumstances. But what’s happened can’t be unchanged.
Two positive actions for change might help. There was little more than 16 percent voter participation in the municipal elections that seated the all-white city council and white mayor who oversee a predominantly white police department in Ferguson, which is 67 percent black. When municipal elections come around next spring, the community should field black candidates, and black residents should make an effort to go to the polls to vote if they want change in their community.
Secondly, make body cams a mandatory piece of equipment for police officers. If Lakeview, Ark., can afford body cams for its officers, then any department in the country should be able to provide them. Having a body cam to record every encounter an officer has provides a video record of each encounter. There is more than enough evidence of the value of a video record for police, and the use of body cams would serve to protect both officers and those they encounter.
And both of these suggestions would be viable almost anywhere in the country.
Well, there may not have been any big-screen TVs stolen during Monday night’s rampage in Ferguson, Mo., but businesses were looted and burned as protesters vented their frustration at a grand jury decision to not indict Darren Wilson, the white police officer who on Aug. 9 shot black teenager Michael Brown to death. I’ve always been baffled by such action. I appreciate the frustration, the sense of powerlessness and of repeatedly being pushed down by “the man.” And I understand the anger that can grow for weeks, months, even years. But I never will understand how turning on your own neighborhood, your own community will in any way help relieve the situation.
During the 1960s, it was Detroit and Watts, after the Rodney King case it was Los Angeles. In each case, and countless others in the interim, the anger always has turned inward to the community. Again, how does burning your neighbor’s business, looting your neighbor’s store, destroying your neighbor’s home create social justice?
There was one account from Ferguson of a black business owner defending his shop against rioters, and another story of a man arriving at work Tuesday morning only to find smoldering rubble where his job used to be. Where is the justice for them? What had they done to warrant such punishment, other than to live and work in Ferguson? They didn’t shoot Michael Brown, they weren’t part of the grand jury handing down the “wrong” decision. They were victimized by protesters as much as the protesters contend Michael Brown and the community were victimized by the system.
In a strictly devil’s advocate role here, why didn’t they vent their anger and frustration on the courthouse, city hall, or even the police station? Those symbolize their alleged oppression, those are the places where the people they contend prey on them and keep them down are to be found, not in a black-owned pharmacy or clothing store. Or, still as a devil’s advocate, why didn’t they take their rage into white neighborhoods?
I don’t know, and I don’t think we ever will know the answer to such questions. Perhaps it’s something white America never will understand.
There are more than enough pundits and “experts” dissecting the grand jury action, speculating and bloviating on each little intricacy they think they’ve found, attempting to read the minds of the grand jurors who are the only ones to have seen all the evidence, heard all the testimony and weighed everything before reaching their decision. No one on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, The Blaze or anywhere else knows what went on in the grand jury or in the grand jurors’ minds.
What happened in Ferguson, like what’s happened in too many other instances, has been tried in the court of public opinion without regards to facts and hard evidence. Our 24/7 news cycle with its hunger to find something new to keep its audience tuned in is turning the society and justice system into warped reality programming. Instead of presenting facts and letting people reach conclusions on their own, the media constantly interprets the facts for us, saving us the trouble of using our own minds to make determinations. Instead of reporting a story, too many in the media manipulate it to fit various viewpoints.
Don’t forget the publicity vultures, those who prey on tragic situations to press their own agendas and feed their own egos on the pretense of seeking justice for a community they’d never set foot in otherwise. Why weren’t they in Ferguson or any of the other cities beset by such division to prevent the spark setting off the powder keg? Why does their presence incite more than calms situations? And where are they after everything they’ve egged on hits the fan and a community is in ashes?
It’s all academic now whether what’s happened in Ferguson could have been prevented. All the points where a bad decision, or a wrong decision, was made will be found in the ongoing analysis, and each will be highlighted as a warning sign for other communities that may find themselves in similar circumstances. But what’s happened can’t be unchanged.
Two positive actions for change might help. There was little more than 16 percent voter participation in the municipal elections that seated the all-white city council and white mayor who oversee a predominantly white police department in Ferguson, which is 67 percent black. When municipal elections come around next spring, the community should field black candidates, and black residents should make an effort to go to the polls to vote if they want change in their community.
Secondly, make body cams a mandatory piece of equipment for police officers. If Lakeview, Ark., can afford body cams for its officers, then any department in the country should be able to provide them. Having a body cam to record every encounter an officer has provides a video record of each encounter. There is more than enough evidence of the value of a video record for police, and the use of body cams would serve to protect both officers and those they encounter.
And both of these suggestions would be viable almost anywhere in the country.
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