Dave Margulies via politicalcartoons.com (with permission)
“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.” - Mark Twain
On this Labor Day, 2014, I thought I'd give a hat tip to some parental advice (direct and indirect) that would be worth keeping in mind.
Lessons from Dad
Ron Fournier has a thought-provoking column about rushing to judgment that I've been mulling over for several days, based on his father's experience being a Detriot riot cop back in the '60s.
Follow me below the fold for more.
It's not an exoneration of the Ferguson police or of Darrell Wilson and should not be read as such (see, for example below, the very relevant unknown as to whether there will be a fair hearing), but there's no question that there are facts we know and facts we don't and the two should be kept separate. At the same time, the threshold for arrest isn't the same as the threshold for conviction. That's the difference between "probable cause" for arrest and "beyond reasonable doubt" needed for conviction (as well as prosecutorial/defense skill and jury make-up).
In the end, maybe Ferguson was more about white rage than black rage.
Still, if there's another point of view to consider, Fournier hits on some, with an emphasis on not rushing to judgment.
If I could talk to Dad about Ferguson it would be over a beer—or two—and we would start with the things we know (or think we know):
• Brown was unarmed and shot by a police officer six times from the front.
• One of the shots hit him in the top of the head.
• Some witnesses say his hands were raised in surrender.
• Due largely to Republican policies (the Iraq War, the drug war, and a tough-on-crime platform), local police departments are far more heavily armed than they were in Dad's day.
• Many black Americans fear cops.
Then, we'd debate the things we don't know, including:
• Did Brown threaten or attack Wilson in a manner that gave the officer a reason to fear for his life, or for the lives of others?
• Does the bullet to the top of Brown's head suggest that he was bowing in surrender? Or charging?
• Are there witnesses whose accounts would counter the prevailing narratives?
• Is it relevant that Brown robbed a convenience store shortly before the shooting? The Ferguson police have said Wilson didn't know that Brown was a suspect when he first encountered him, so we know the robbery was not directly relevant to the officer's actions, at least initially. But what about Brown's state of mind? He knew he had just committed a crime and might be held accountable. Did it affect his approach to the cop?
• Will there be a fair inquiry? The prosecutor overseeing the investigation has roots in law enforcement: His father, mother, brother, uncle, and cousin all worked for St. Louis's police department, and his father was killed while responding to a call involving a black suspect. What about his state of mind?
Dad would say a few bad cops hurt the reputation of a great profession. Many Americans believe the problem is more systemic. Well, this is indisputable: Police departments nationwide don't reflect the racial makeup of their communities—a disconnect that causes and inflames conflict.
This is arguably the best possible light that could be shown on the incident from a police perpective, and yet still leaves out some important events and actions. For example (and not limited to):
• the smearing of Mike Brown's name by the Ferguson police with an inappropriate release of the convenience store video over the objections of the Justice Department and condemned by the governor
• an incomplete and unprofessional police report
• changing stories from the Ferguson police to the media about what happened
Keep in mind that the individual cop could be exonerated by Missouri law (see
Convicting Darren Wilson Will Be Basically Impossible) yet the Department can still be guilty of systemic injustice.
But also keep in mind how America looks at this: 64 percent of Americans say they don't know enough to decide whether Mike Brown's shooting was justified or not (that's 68 percent of whites and 39 percent of blocks), while 18 percent of whites and 57 percent of blacks say it wasn't.
Those numbers alone tell you we have a problem, and it's not just in Ferguson, MO.
Lessons from Mom
Well, changing topics, there are other lessons from parents to learn. Here's a great one recently making the rounds on twitter from Art Kellermann, MD:
click for readable picture.
Now if only all docs learned that lesson. Hey, how about requiring lawmakers to call their moms before proposing something especially dumb, mean and nasty? It couldn't be any worse than what goes on in Congress now (where they only call the lobbyists).
Lessons from both Mom and Dad
And if you still haven't learned enough from Mom and Dad, maybe you can learn this:
Pat Bagley via politicalcartoons.com (with permission)
The above, of course, refers to the 9 year old who accidentally shot her weapons instructor while shooting an Uzi at a commercial range. Parents haven't stopped teaching common sense, but some clearly have stopped exercising it.
Here's the thing: it doesn't have to be illegal to be a really a stupid thing to do. That's a basic lesson I learned from my own parents.