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Aug 14, 2014
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On Saturday, August
9, Michael Brown, an 18-year-old unarmed black man and his friend was walking down
the middle of a street in Ferguson, Mo. A white police officer, Darren Wilson,
told them to move to the sidewalk. A confrontation followed. Wilson struggled with
Brown to get out of his patrol car. Brown attempted to take Wilson’s gun, the
gun fired, Brown ran. Wilson fired several shots while in pursuit. Brown stopped,
turned, and walked toward Wilson. Witness’s observations differed as to whether
Brown was walking toward Wilson in a threatening manner or with his hands
raised in surrender. Wilson “fired a series of shots” and killed him.
A grand jury convened in August to determine if Wilson’s
actions were reasonable if he believed his life was in danger.
On November 24, a jury of nine failed to indict Wilson.
Since August, there have been sustained protests. The grand
jury’s failure to indict Wilson initiated new waves of outrage. As so many
times in our past, it sparked a national debate about law enforcement’s
relationship with black people and minorities, and a debate regarding police
use of deadly force.
Predictably, the central focus of news broadcasts is of black
people fighting police, rioting, torching buildings, and looting. Undeniably, race
relations are a big part of the problem. But, blaming the problem solely on
race is ignoring other ongoing and broader issues that our country faces.
The deep-seated issue in the anger is that people believe that
the justice system and law enforcement, political, and economic systems are
stacked against them. They feel hopeless and powerless, and they are angry and frustrated.
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Police
forces are becoming militarized, essentially
paramilitary forces. The Department of Defense supplies
surplus military equipment to police, and President Obama has refused
to curtail DOD's program of militarization “choosing instead to focus on
improving the training of officers given access to high-powered weapons and [armored]
vehicles previously used in Iraq and Afghanistan.” We are fast becoming a
police state where governments’ interest is protecting itself but not its
citizens.
Officer Darren Wilson may have acted legally and within
police protocol under circumstances that allow the use of deadly force.
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But, on December 4 a New York Grand Jury failed
to indict a white police officer, Daniel
Pantaleo, in the chokehold death of Eric Garner, a 43 year-old black man.
In this case, the incident was captured on camera,
and despite the medical examiner ruling Garner’s death a homicide, the jury found
no reason to indict Pantaleo, even to charge him with negligent homicide.
Jon
Stewart on The Daily Show said, “I think what is so utterly depressing is
that none of the ambiguities that existed in the Ferguson case exist in the
Staten Island case and yet the outcome is exactly the same: no crime, no trial,
all harm, no foul -- we are definitely not living in a post racial society. And
I can imagine a lot of people out there wondering, how much of a society are we
living in at all.”
There are problems with grand juries. First, grand juries
are secret. Second, in grand juries the local prosecutor, who works daily and
closely with local police, is the one presenting evidence without
cross-examination as in a jury trial.
Across the country, police investigate themselves, depending
on internal affairs departments to resolve complaints of misconduct. This is happening
in the Garner case. NYPD said now that the grand jury has finished its work
they will conduct an internal investigation of Pantaleo and the other officers
involved in Garner’s death.
However, the citizens within a community should obligate their
police departments to a citizen’s committee review, and the committee must be
the ones rendering final judgment on its findings.
Many people say that there are two systems of justice in the
United States, one for whites and one for blacks. They are wrong. There are
four systems of justice: one for whites, one for blacks, one for the rich, and
one for the poor.
There is a lot that needs to be reformed and changed in our
country. The preceding issues need to be heard, addressed, and resolved. But not
only race relations issues, but also the broader systemic issues embedded in
our systems of justice and law enforcement.
Copyright © 2014 Horatio Green
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