As noted in Vyan's diary, Joe Scarborough said, 'Michael Brown is a Thug... who knocked over a Liquor Store.' Joe Scarborough could just as easily and far more accurately have said, 'Michael Brown is a teenager who committed petty larceny when he stole some cigarillos from the corner market,' but he didn't.
Joe goes on to say that Michael, 'doesn't deserve to be the face of Black Oppression in America.'
I couldn't agree more, Joe. Michael doesn't deserve that at all. What Michael does deserve is the same treatment Elizabeth Lauten got when she was a teenager, as Leslie Salzillo points out in her diary with this quote from the Smoking Gun article about what happened when Elizabeth committed petty larceny at age 17:
[H]er case was handled via the District Court’s deferred prosecution program, which resulted in the charge’s eventual dismissal after [she] stayed out of trouble for a prescribed period.
Do you see the difference, Joe? Do you?
Michael deserves that same treatment. But Michael won't get it. In fact, we no longer refer to Michael in the present tense because Michael is dead. Michael is dead because black teenagers in this country are not treated like white teenagers are.
If they were, there would be no need for a face of Black Oppression in America.
But there IS a need for that face. Black teenagers need a chance to grow up, even if they fuck up as teenagers and steal some stuff. They need a chance even to grow up to be 31 year old fuck-ups that lose their jobs because they said stuff they were WAY old enough to know better than to say. They need to be able to be 31 year old fuck-ups that lose jobs and still have a chance to learn from their mistakes and have a shot at making amends and living decent lives well into old age. What they don't need is to lay dead in the street for 4 1/2 hours for raising the ire of a cop who spotted them jaywalking after they just so happened to commit petty larceny.
Can you get that, Joe?
Michael Brown is, for the moment, the face of Black Oppression in America because he's dead and Elizabeth Lauten is alive. Too many faces like Michael's have gone before. It's time to stand up to make sure that no more faces like Michael's have to go after.
If you can't get that, Joe, then you really have no business in the business you're in.