Week Later, Protesters Remain Vocal on Ferguson, Partly With Silence
One week after the grand jury's decision concerning Darren Wilson, protesters gather peacefully in a variety of locations, referencing Michael Brown's death by raising their arms, sitting in silence, and even laying on the ground. Organizers who view this time as an opportunity to push back against police brutality and racial profiling spent the last weekend determining next steps of action. Additionally, the Ferguson Commission met on Monday, although the community did not accept its validity immediately. What do these protests say about the American people? What might come of the protests? How should the larger issues in question be addressed by the government? Will the Ferguson Commission impact the community positively?
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I hate the fact the nation is focusing so much on Mike Brown, a thug, instead of Eric Garner, a black man a man who was an actual victim on police brutality. He was killed for selling untaxed cigarettes, Mike Brown died because he decided to assault an officer.
ReplyDeleteI think that in order to end police brutality, the police forces must undergo a change of mindset. I recognize that this most certainly does not apply to all police officers. I think that they have to understand their ultimate goals, to protect the citizens and ensure peace. The actions of the police in the news recently haven't reflected these goals. I think that this ferguson case could possibly have a positive impact on the community but not during this generation. I think that the protests may unite the young people to understand that police brutality and racism must end thus this could end in later generations.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mackenzie. I think police forces across the nation must change. Hopefully the situation in ferguson and all the media attention it has received will have a positive impact in the long run. Personally, I am happy to see these protests popping up. I was especially glad to see NFL players on the St. Louis Rams do the "don't shoot" protest while entering the field last Sunday. In order for their to be change the fight has to be led by high profile individuals.
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ReplyDeleteI found it very interesting, while reading the article, to hear what many protesters have to say about the Ferguson case. According to every single piece of evidence and every credible witness testimony (including six blacks who confirmed Officer Wilson's side of the story) gathered by the grand jury, there was no probable cause for indictment. Michael Brown robbed a store, met the description of the culprit, leading Wilson to approach him, defied Wilson's request to get out of the street, physically attacked Wilson, tried to grab Wilson's gun, started to run away, then charged Wilson aggressively. Wilson then yelled "stop" repeatedly, and opened fire when Brown did not stop. He then ceased fire while giving Brown another chance, and was forced to open fire again when Brown ignored him. Wilson would have died had he not shot Brown, and Brown's race was totally irrelevant. These are indisputable facts. I wonder how much longer protesters, the media, and racial opportunists, such as AG Eric Holder, Obama, Al Sharpton, and others are going to continue to ignore the evidence while forwarding the false meme of "hands up, don't shoot" and the false narrative that law enforcement is racist, America is racist, and racially motivated police brutality is a significant threat to black prosperity in this country. Black people dying at the hands of white officers is incredibly rare, and pretending that it is the source of all that ails the black community will only exacerbate the real problems of poverty, breakdown of the family structure, teen pregnancy, unemployment, etc., all of which force more and more blacks to be reliant on the government - namely the Democratic Party - that claims to care about them, while perpetuating and encouraging all of these destructive trends in order to retain political support for themselves. Instead of recognizing these blatant realities, protesters have prioritized their feelings over contradictory facts.
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DeleteI do not believe that people should still be protesting over Mike Brown's death. I still fail to see any evidence showing that Brown was innocent, and I have only seen and read about things that justify (to an extent, at least) former officer Wilson's actions. As for the issue of police brutality against blacks, I feel that people are exaggerating things. While it is true that there have been cases of brutality against blacks by white policemen, I do not think that this is a national problem. In the case of Brown and in the case of Garner, both were engaging in illegal activities. That does not mean that they both deserved to die, of course, but it is wrong to assume that white policemen have been perpetually attacking innocent blacks.
ReplyDeleteOnce is wrong. Isn't it? What if it was your brother, or father, killed by an illegal chokehold for the "illegal activity" of selling single cigarettes? Not an exaggeration, and yes a national problem. Race relations/racial tensions worse now than at any time I can remember. I am 45 years old.
DeleteI'm glad to see that Ferguson has realized that rioting and looting have not been helping their cause and they have gone back to peaceful protesting. It's great to see how the community and parts of the nation have unified in hope of change that is decades overdue. I see a simple solution to problems with the police force and minorities across the nation: put minorities in the police force. It has been stated multiple times that the police force in Ferguson is 94% white in a community that is 67% black. At this point, citizens are not going to be able to going back to trusting that police force any longer, especially if they are white. Even nationally, minorities do not trust white police. If police forces were more racially representative I think that people in communities like Ferguson would feel safer.
ReplyDeleteI feel that these protests are necessary in bringing change to the current legal system. The shooting of Michael Brown shouldn't have occurred in the first place; the officers shouldn't have used such excessive force. However, I feel that I have heard so many contradicting testimonies about that night, I do not know what to believe. Though the facts on this case seem to me unclear, I wouldn't go as far as calling Michael Brown, someone's recently killed child, a thug...
ReplyDeleteI still don't have a strong opinion on this issue but I do believe that police across the country need to change. I don't think the facts are so "hard" that the protests should stop. At this point these protests are not just about one case they are about a huge issue. These protests have to continue or this issue will like many others loose momentum and die down.
ReplyDeleteI think it's hard for me to form a justified opinion on the topic of Ferguson because I don't know much information about it. Everything I hear contradicts something else I have previously heard. I think the protests are an excuse for people to say they are making a difference. Especially in Ferguson, in light of Michael Brown, people have turned to violence to express their dissatisfaction with the justice system. If they really want their voice to be heard, I think they should turn to non-violent protests because they are just creating more trouble with their current method.
ReplyDeleteI think that the major issue in this case compared to that of the Eric Garner case is that there is so much speculation in what actually happened. The main issue that I am concerned with is the fact that the case did not even make it to court for either of the cases. This leaves an air of uncertainty around both of the cases which I thought the judicial system was meant to help correct. In this case I'm not quite sure that that was the case.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Raman. I don't think that people should still be routing over Mike Brown's death. What the news stations are showing I don't think is the full story. They always say that Mike Brown had been shot more times than needed but never tell the story of how it even ended up at that point. Mike Brown robed a store and assaulted the clerk before he was killed while Garner was killed because he was selling untaxed cigarettes. However, I feel that these protests will bring a positive change and advocate against police brutality.
ReplyDeleteKellen brings up a good point: it's hard to compare the Michael Brown case and the Eric Garner case because in the latter, we're aware of exactly of what happened. In the Michael Brown case, there are different witness accounts, most of conflict with Darren Wilson's testimony of what happened. Now, there's no denying what happened in the Eric Garner case because it was caught on video. Say what you want about this whole situation, but the fact is that since the indictment of Darren Wilson, two weeks ago, both Tamir Rice and Eric Garner have been killed by police officers, and something needs to be done to make it stop. I can only hope that the protests will help influence change.
ReplyDeleteIt's good that the issue of police brutality has become a national and even global issue. I find it interesting how a lot of white people try to downplay it, even though they are not the ones falling victim to a broken system. I fully support peaceful protests, and I hope they continue around the country in the weeks and months to follow to show Americans won't forget this. As others have said, it's hard to know exactly what happened when Mike Brown was shot, but I can't deny that Darren Wilson used excessive force and then left this dead teen lying in the street for hours, a complete disregard of respect or remorse. Either way, no indictment brought this much unrest from citizens, and the judicial system is supposed to bring justice. Ferguson has a mostly white police force that has a history of racial profiling in a majority black neighborhood, and this is common in other areas of the country. I hope peace and equality can be achieved through protests.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I don't think that the Mike Brown case is a good one to be basing protests off of, due to the highly contradicting evidence, I do think that police brutality is a rising problem that needs to be addressed. Not all cops are like this, but a number of police officers have a sense of invincibility when it comes to providing justice, whether it's actually just or not. Disregarding race, police brutality is a serious problem and police stations should be promoting anti-violence instead of anti-racism first.
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