UNITED STATES—In August 2014, an incident in the small town of Ferguson, Missouri sparked outrage across the nation. A young unarmed African-American male was fatally shot by a White officer. Plenty of debate has gone on about this issue of rather the shooting was racially motivated.
The St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCullough read the statement from the Grand Jury where the decision was announced that Officer Darren Wilson would not face any criminal charges in the death of Michael Brown.
The video footage from the national media outlets displayed tons of people in the streets, later fleeing the streets looking to cause chaos. Seeing video footage of a crowd of people attempting to turn over a police vehicle was beyond haunting.
So would rioting be at the forefront of the chaos in this town that has sparked continued dialogue across the nation about race relations and abuse of authority by the police? Unfortunately, yes.
President Barack Obama commented on the decision stating, “First and foremost, we are a nation built on the rule of law. We must accept this was the grand jury’s decision to make.”
“I join Michael’s parents in asking anyone joining in protests to act peacefully.” The president added, “There are still problems…issues where the law feels its being applied in discriminatory action.” President Obama was advocating for people to not use violence as a resource to express their frustration, but that was not the case Tuesday night in Ferguson.
Countless police cars where set on fire, bikes were set on fire, buildings were vandalized, windows were broken and looting took place throughout the region. Is this frustrating, without a doubt because the individuals engaging in such despicable behavior have no idea that they are destroying a city, and the livelihood of those people who live in that region?
I hear it time and time again about non-violent protest, but we don’t live in the 1950s or 1960s anymore. We don’t have strong leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others to advocate that resistance to a younger generation who is more prone to using violence to get their voices heard. It’s difficult to grasp a hold on a generation that has grown to become more disrespectful to their elders and to those who are not kin to them.
This is something that has to be taught, and even if it were taught more in schools and in the media, it’s an uphill battle in my opinion. People just don’t care. Many might be asking the bigger question of why the rioting is taking place. It’s the notion that people suspect an injustice has taken place. People had been predicting what the Grand Jury might decide, and I had the feeling that no charges would be indicted against the officer.
I can’t make a decision on what should or should not have been done. All I know is that it’s a trend of seeing more and more African-American males being fatally shot by police officers. Something has to be done as this seems to transitioning into an epidemic. My biggest concern is that unarmed males are being killed.
That is beyond stifling and alarming in our world. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, anytime a life is taken by another individual it changes the person. Or at least I would hope it would. If a person murders someone and has no remorse over the actions taken, it raises a huge red flag in my opinion. I would hope beyond belief that Officer Darren Wilson has a tremendous amount of guilt behind fatally shooting Michael Brown, but his recent interview with ABC News proves otherwise. Its quite sad, and unbelievable that he sleeps with a clear conscience; it almost felt as if he was gloating. Perhaps, I’ll work on a column next week to discuss that issue.
This is the problem when deaths happen where we only get the account of one side of the story. The victim is never able to fully tell what happened from their point of view. We only have one part of the puzzle; and its impossible to solve a puzzle without having all the pieces in place.