Ferguson, Missouri Bottom Line

The bottom line issue in Ferguson, Missouri is the way black people are treated by law enforcement agencies in America.  The killing of black citizen Michael Brown by white officer Darren Wilson is simply the latest installment in a tragic, long-running national serial.  As the video released by the Ferguson Police shows, Michael Brown appears to be an unsympathetic character.  In it he is seen stealing cigars and shoving a store employee out of his way in an intimidating fashion.  Watch the video here.  No doubt that was the reason the Ferguson police released it, to try to get public opinion on their side.  Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, who criticized the local officials for releasing the video, has given his view that that was precisely why it was made public.  See the Newsweek story and video of his remarks here.

But as the black citizens of Ferguson ask, how is that relevant?  They don't mean it is insignificant that Brown may have committed a crime.  What they mean is why did the police officer, who may have been unaware that Brown was wanted in that robbery (that's what Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson said, that the officer initially spoke to Brown simply because he was walking in the street and not on the sidewalk) have to resort to lethal force against a person who was unarmed?  See Jackson's remarks here.

We have a police academy where I teach at College of the Sequoias, and training in the non-lethal arrest and physical control of citizens when necessary is part and parcel of every cadet's required curriculum.  It is also considered a "perishable skill" that must be re-certified for active law enforcement personnel on a regular basis.  Even veteran cops have to undergo intensive training and must demonstrate their proficiency in realistic action scenarios to be awarded re-certification.  So it is almost beyond comprehension that a trained and competent policeman would need to pull a gun and fire multiple rounds into an unarmed and untrained civilian in order to subdue him.

Let me qualify my remarks by saying it is possible that evidence may arise that Brown may have presented a life and death threat to Wilson that could excuse the use of lethal force, for example that he was going for the officer's gun.  But that's not what the initial eyewitnesses have said.  They describe Brown with his hands in the air and a good distance from the police officer and refer to the confrontation as an "execution."  The sad and disgusting truth is that these incidents keep happening, and that they almost invariably involve people of color being treated with a callousness and ruthlessness that rarely seems to happen in other circumstances.  The black community is well aware of the phenomenon, and is frankly fed up with it.  It needs to end.