The Ferguson verdict is only the tail end of what was never a serious probable cause investigation to begin with. There was no serious effort to treat the accused as a defendant throughout this process. There was no serious effort by the county DA to levy charges in beginning and when he did, he did not even present the case to the grand jury (his assistants did). There was no arrest made or attempted. Legally police can make an arrest and have up to 48 hours to release if no probable cause was found. Believe me some cops do that all the time. The evidence as they laid it out was not convincing enough to show the Mike Brown pose any risk to accused to justify shooting him. We are taking the account of one persons testimony and inconsistent autopsy reports.The only things that the county and private autopsies on Mike Brown reach consensus on are the number of shots and the location of the shots. Last time I checked the law, shoplifting and smoking marijuana does not give license to the police to kill. And why do they insist on telling of us about his marijuana usage and shoplifting like that makes the shooting justified? What young man, especially Black man, you know is going to grab for gun from the police. Come on really? They took a page from the Zimmerman book of lies. The fact that they dragged on a probable cause hearing this long was emblematic of what was a sham of justice. Dont get me started about the mainstream media. There was no serious effort by the mainstream media to do serious journalism. ABC, CBS, NBC did not even bother showing a live feed on the verdict. All CNN and FOX news showed is the rage following the verdict and then they sensationalize it. Where are the interviews with the community leaders and Black intelligentsia regarding the verdict? Where is the serious discourse around a political platform that can address the grievances of the people of Ferguson? Where is the serious journalism highlighting an investigation into the Ferguson police department? Lets follow up on the county prosecution record of indictments against the police. Why I dont see an intelligent and thoughtful analysis of the history of Ferguson and why it is like so many of towns across America. Dont be mistaken, this is not an anti police rant, because I like to think that I have more depth than that. I have police officers in my family and I know several well who I respect and know they do a good job protecting the community. This is not a problem of individual police officers, but a problem of a legal system that allows for certain police to take advantage of the broad latitude that they are given to kill the undesirables. The question we ask ourselves is why is a young Black man undesirable to begin with? This is not a tragedy just because of the Michael Browns death,it is also a tragedy because we all know this could happen again.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 04:38:41 +0000