This is a cross-post from my blog at Societas Eruditorum North America:
Last night, the city of Ferguson, Missouri burned after a Grand Jury failed to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown. The same weekend, a 12-year old black male in Cleveland was gunned down after he reportedly failed to drop an airsoft pistol at the orders of police.
Both of these deaths serve as a call to have a national dialogue on many things, but we won’t. We can’t. While I agree that peaceful protest is important, and sometimes not-so-peaceful protest, it isn’t going to solve things in this situation.
There are several facets of this issue, some we’re willing to talk about, and some we’re unwilling to talk about. What am I referring to? Well, we’re willing to discuss the much rightful and needed changes to policing procedure that have been a long time coming. With any luck that discussion will blossom into meaningful reforms, better training, leveraging technology, and a culture change in policing. If done right, we can finally bridge the gap between citizens and police successfully. At this point in time, I find it very difficult to want to help police keep my community safe, and very much see policing as an institution woefully in need of some severe house cleaning. Which is sad, because I also recognize the enormous benefits good policing can bring to a community.
What are the issues we’re unwilling to talk about? We’re not willing to discuss the victim’s role in this situation. I don’t believe in blaming the victim, but I do believe in discussing why the victim was a victim in the first place, and what the rest of society can learn from it. Because if anything is certain in this entire process, it’s that Officer Wilson did not go out that day looking for someone to shoot. I still firmly believe he was trigger happy and drew his weapon when he had no reason to, but we have to be honest here: this was the intersection of two individuals whose individual actions culminated in a death.
Why did Michael Brown commit a strong arm robbery?
Why was Michael and his friend walking down the middle of the street? (let’s for get legality here, it’s unsafe: it’s asking to be made into road kill)
What else do we not have absolute proof that happened during the encounter?
The protesters in Ferguson and elsewhere, where is the community respect? Put another way, there would be a better argument if all of the destruction had been police cars and the police station itself.
If we look at the 12-year old who was shot in Cleveland: Why did he have an airsoft pistol that was modified to remove the orange tip. Why didn’t he put his hands in the air when ordered to do so?
Discussing victimology, why this victim and what role they played in their ultimate demise does not have to be a hateful, racist act. In fact, introspection is the best way to move forward on anything.
And unfortunately, whether a uniquely American phenomenon or a human one, we can’t have this kind of frank, 360-degree-view discussion. We can’t and we wont. We won’t because individuals don’t want to be made uncomfortable in discussing the truth and admitting where sides have faults.
Police officers won’t ever discuss what they really did wrong, they will focus entirely on what the victim did wrong. The Victim’s advocates will focus on what the police did wrong, never discussing what the victim did wrong. Our minds cannot comprehend that everyone in a situation may be wrong and the culmination of those wrongs resulted in someone losing. We want a saint and a devil. We don’t want an issue of complexities and minutia, we want it to be binary.
To fix what is wrong in this nation, to move forward from tragedies like Michael Brown’s Death, we have to have honest and frank discussions from every angle. We can’t have a discussion where we focus on only one aspect, we have to focus on everything. We have to discuss privilege and racism, but we also have to discuss what people in these communities are doing to either better themselves or drag themselves down. If we make part of these discussions off limits, or try to paint questions as racist or victim-blaming, we will never be able to move on.
America is not likely to move on anytime soon from these tragedies. We don’t want to. Pointing fingers at others, or setting some random, unaffiliated shop on fire is far more fun than sitting down and having an uncomfortable discussion.
My Take
Officer Wilson was wrong when he used his firearm first instead of using other, non-lethal means. He was wrong when he made a minor infraction into something. I don’t know if he should be on trial for murder or even manslaughter, I would like to see at least that a trial have had occurred but we’re not going to see one here. We’re not going to see one in the case of the 12-year old either. Which leads me to…
Michael Brown was wrong from the beginning. His robbery of a convenience store was wrong and shameful. His refusal to use the sidewalk like a rational human being only goes to support whatever claims Wilson makes about Brown’s actions. He assassinated his own character before he was assassinated by a white officer.
I consider this deeply tragic, and that no matter Michael’s crimes they never warranted death. Yet, I cannot ignore the fact that decisions he made, of his free will, contributed in his ultimate demise. It suggests there is more to this story than we know, and because Wilson did not have a body cam or dash cam, we’ll never know his side of the story to remove any doubt.
What we can say for certain though is what we know we have two people that were ultimately not the sweet loving people that others claim they were when they encountered one another. And that, my friends, is what we need to take home and stew on.
On the pathway of life, we have many choices. Each choice creates a reaction in the world around us. Most of those times those consequences are equal and on par to those actions. Sometimes they are not.
What I want everyone to take away from this post is to remind yourself every day that you’re surrounded by other human beings with family and friends. They are fallible but they also must be accountable for their actions. We forget sometimes though to treat others as human beings. And as a result, people get hurt or killed.
Edited to add some emphasis that some folks may be ignoring