WILD IN THE STREETS
Nov. 28th, 2014 11:09 amThere is trouble in Ferguson, MO. As you know.
Happy Thanksgiving.
And even with the development of the Grand Jury’s decision – which obviously I think was as badly handled as the rest of the case – I don’t have anything new to say about it. Which is as well, since neither does anyone else, judging from my social media feeds.
Most of the things being said about Ferguson and Mike Brown are the same things that have been said since the shooting happened. And those were the same things that were said during the Trayvon Martin case before that, and so on and so on all the way back to Rodney King, and so on and so on.
Which should be telling you something right there. Only it’s not.
Which I guess is why I feel compelled to pound this out, because all the rhetoric seems to be drowning out two really important aspects of the whole Ferguson episode:
1. African-Americans are telling white people what it’s like for them to live in America, and a lot of white people are not listening to them. Even worse, they’re responding telling black people they shouldn’t be so negative about it and give the system a chance and maybe stop acting so threatening and gangsta all the time. There are few things more frustrating than someone who doesn’t understand yr situation trying to tell you how you should feel about your situation.
2. The outcome of the grand jury investigation validates the ongoing concept of Law & Order that it is acceptable for police officers (or anyone else) to shoot unarmed people dead if they are sufficiently scared enough of them.
Poor old Darren Wilson.
I’ve already blogged about both points, so I’ll just link to this post from The Atlantic that illustrates the pattern of accepted police brutality, the problem of convincing the skeptics who try to rationalize it or write such cases off as exaggeration or anti-Law & Order, and why it’s important not to get bogged down in the minutiae of the Mike Brown case at the expense of the bigger picture of police reform.
It’s good advice. Regardless of how much racism plays a part in it, police brutality is everyone’s problem* – especially at a time when most people are on some kind of grand Fear trip, and kooks like Wayne LaPierre are going around telling everyone the answer is more guns.
You can also read this LJ Post here (glommed from![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nebris ) which is a similar riff, but far better written than the one yr reading now.
*Apart from rich people, I mean. If it was their problem, it would already be solved. You know this.
So it goes,
This is dF
Happy Thanksgiving.
And even with the development of the Grand Jury’s decision – which obviously I think was as badly handled as the rest of the case – I don’t have anything new to say about it. Which is as well, since neither does anyone else, judging from my social media feeds.
Most of the things being said about Ferguson and Mike Brown are the same things that have been said since the shooting happened. And those were the same things that were said during the Trayvon Martin case before that, and so on and so on all the way back to Rodney King, and so on and so on.
Which should be telling you something right there. Only it’s not.
Which I guess is why I feel compelled to pound this out, because all the rhetoric seems to be drowning out two really important aspects of the whole Ferguson episode:
1. African-Americans are telling white people what it’s like for them to live in America, and a lot of white people are not listening to them. Even worse, they’re responding telling black people they shouldn’t be so negative about it and give the system a chance and maybe stop acting so threatening and gangsta all the time. There are few things more frustrating than someone who doesn’t understand yr situation trying to tell you how you should feel about your situation.
2. The outcome of the grand jury investigation validates the ongoing concept of Law & Order that it is acceptable for police officers (or anyone else) to shoot unarmed people dead if they are sufficiently scared enough of them.
Poor old Darren Wilson.
I’ve already blogged about both points, so I’ll just link to this post from The Atlantic that illustrates the pattern of accepted police brutality, the problem of convincing the skeptics who try to rationalize it or write such cases off as exaggeration or anti-Law & Order, and why it’s important not to get bogged down in the minutiae of the Mike Brown case at the expense of the bigger picture of police reform.
It’s good advice. Regardless of how much racism plays a part in it, police brutality is everyone’s problem* – especially at a time when most people are on some kind of grand Fear trip, and kooks like Wayne LaPierre are going around telling everyone the answer is more guns.
You can also read this LJ Post here (glommed from
nebris ) which is a similar riff, but far better written than the one yr reading now. *Apart from rich people, I mean. If it was their problem, it would already be solved. You know this.
So it goes,
This is dF
