I’m jumping on the band wagon here just in case you haven’t seen some of this elsewhere because it is important to our future.
I was listening to one of those television talk shows and heard a particularly good question asked. “Why are the police officers wearing camouflage uniforms?” Who are they trying to hide from? Aren’t they supposed to be seen by the members of the community? Isn’t that pretty much the definition of a police presence?
I am also noticing lots of military weapons in the news film footage – from assault rifles to tripod mounted machine guns I am seeing what looks like an army rather than a police force. Who are these police officers expecting to meet on the streets of Ferguson? And, I wonder about all those military vehicles that are being used in the video clips? Are they expecting to encounter IEDs or mortar barrages along the way? It seems to me that if you look ready for war you’re likely to get it.
Our First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees our freedom of speech and our right of assembly as follows:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
The actions of the police in Ferguson, MO following the death of Michael Brown were confrontational and provocative by any definition I can think of so I am not surprised that the demonstrators reacted the way they did. I am not excusing the persons in the crowd who chose to break the law and use the demonstration as cover. What I am saying is that the police tactics used prior to Thursday night invited trouble by violating First Amendment rights for no good reason. Thursday appears to have been handled differently and I am hopeful that this more restrained method will prove to be calming. I am also hopeful that the officials in Ferguson will get on with their investigation and start releasing some details because that good faith will go a long way towards keeping things calm as well – just as long as the facts are released and not some spinning of the facts to artificially protect the officer who was involved in the shooting of Michael Brown.
I have written recently (2014-04-28) on this blog site about racism and the ways it manifests itself. There can be little doubt that young black males are treated differently in America than young white males. That said, there always seems to be an explanation about the difference that would indicate the appropriateness of the behavior. This is classic institutional racism and until we recognize it for what it is we will continue to witness its outcome. Ferguson, MO doesn’t have a corner on the market for this type of behavior. No, there are towns all over America where police departments look like armies, where police emphasis patrols pay greater attention to minority communities than they do the white sections of town, where First Amendment rights are violated in the name of law enforcement and keeping order, where the demographics of the police force do not match the demographics of the community they serve, where the demographics of the elected leadership don’t match the community they serve, and where the officials in charge just don’t get it.
In those communities, people wake up in the morning feeling that they are smarter than other people, that they are better qualified than other people to do the work that they do, that they understand things better than other people, and well, that they are just better than other people. After all, they have things that other people don’t have like bigger houses, bigger cars, more money, better schools, and just better everything and they got all these things with hard work and personal sacrifice. There was nothing prejudicial in the way that these things came to be. They just are.
Until the day comes when all Americans wake up in the morning feeling that they are equal to all the other people here in America, we will continue to witness the sort of behavior and witness the reaction to that behavior that we currently witness in Ferguson, MO.
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