After Tuesday night’s Missouri Grand Jury decision to not indict Officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of Michael Brown the streets filled with people. Protesters, Police, News Journalists, even the state National Guard was called in prior to the verdict being read, they were all out in full force. The following riots sparked by feelings of injustice, racism, and oppression of lower income individuals, and the rise in police brutality cases across the country quickly raged out of control. As the live streams and news streams were coming in (I avoided social media for the most part) I had a few thoughts on the whole matter, and here I will explain those thoughts.
(1) A Person Is Dead, and no matter the outcome of the fight Officer Darren Wilson and Michael Brown were engaged in, it seems likely this end could not be avoided. When the life of any person is taken in such a manner it is always a loss for someone. Michael Brown had family, friends, neighbors, people who cared about him, and the same is true of Officer Wilson, this fact cannot be refuted. Thinking about this it seems that it is forgotten by the protesters and opposition to the refusal to indict Wilson.
(2) Protesters are misguided and wrong. The protests that began after Brown's death and now brought back to Ferguson are destructive to the wrong ends. It makes no logical sense to attack private property, to loot, set fire to or destroy the businesses and homes, cars and other property of other citizens in the community. It makes your “cause” unworthy if you take from others and do not address the root cause of the strife or reason for discontent. If these protesters had surrounded police stations, fire stations, city hall, and other city properties, and had refused to let them operate as usual, this could have turned out well. If these protesters had staged a protest (not riots) at the supreme court building this would have been symbolic. The rampant destruction of private property is just the continuation of violations on those that could have been of some source of support for the cause. I also pointed out on Twitter that with the destruction of private property running rampant in the area libertarians (and anyone else who hold a strict adherence to not do damage to others property) would do well to distance their support for these mobs. The destruction of private property will accomplish nothing but more victims of this tragedy, where as the dismantling on the government will free the people from its oppression.
(3) Mistakes were made. The city of Ferguson decided to wait until dark, 9pm their time, to release the verdict, even though it had been made earlier in the day. This was, in my mind, intentional to attain camera effect. If their statement had been made earlier in the day, after it was read in court, this would have allowed business owners to stay at their stores to protect them, this is a two edged sword though, as they could have then become victims of the rioters. This decision also guaranteed that the maximum amount of people were not at work, but in the streets. It allowed better cinematography in that fire is more visually exciting when contrasted to the dark.
(4) The State fails at it’s own monopoly. As we see from this and the prior riots (directly after the shooting) the Ferguson police cannot and will not protect and serve the people but are engaging the protesters head on. Firing rubber bullets, tear gas, rolling out armored trucks they are less concerned with the city as a whole and more concerned with directly combating the mass of people. Rakkur Crowley said it best this morning on Facebook, “The looting in Ferguson is just more evidence that the State fails abysmally in its’ claim to be the monopoly provider of property protection.”
(5) The State still wins. As I pointed out last night on Twitter, these riots set in motion the future and continuation of police militarization in these areas and across the country. When riots such as this happen it is common for the police forces to request help from other agencies, local, state and federal. This gives the impression that the department is ill equipped to handle it’s own populace. In the next few weeks, months and years watch as the Ferguson Police Department becomes more and more militarized. And watch as the funding is poured into the “public safety” areas of that local government. The State will continue to tax these people, most likely at higher rates to offset damages and afford new services. The state will have a reason to impose new restrictions on the populace. The state will have renewed faith from some that they are the protectors of civility and social order, because in the minds of some, order comes from mandate, and social structures are built by government, that all aspects of their lives can and should be controlled “for the greater good”.
(6) Racism is still alive and well. This is brought to my mind by an image of a young black woman holding a sign that reads “Black Lives Matter”. Without going into a whole diatribe on the fact that “reverse racism” does not exist and is merely doublespeak, for a person to claim equality under law or circumstance the abstinence of using classification or separation by gender, race, creed, wealth and any other differentiation must be present. By claiming that Black Lives Matter she is making a statement that she believes that others do not hold this true. But why not just say, “Lives Matter, Stop Killing People”. Better defined as the root of the problem this statement shows a true belief in the equal treatment in all, not defined or restricted to only certain groups or classifications of people.
The entire situation is a mess, and one that will not be resolved by dispersing the people, it is an emotion, a feeling, an idea, and as has been warned before, “ One resists the invasion of armies; one does not resist the invasion of ideas.” The fact is that Ferguson is the culmination and the expected outcome of the growing problem of police abuse and authoritative overreach, it is the expected result of the growing Police State. It is for the thousands of cases of brutality that go unaired on national television and kept from the minds and eyes of the public, it is the result of a belief that “just doing my job” is a legitimate reason for abuse. This powder keg is nothing near close to burning out.
So the takeaway from all of this is as follows. A human being is dead, that is a tragedy in of itself. The state fails to provide the service they hold a monopoly on, something they extort money for. And in the end the riots and protests that are following the Grand Jury's decision will ultimately cause the government to swell in that area and beyond.
Also See
(*) Transcripts of Grand Jury Evidence
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