No Indictment, No Peace

It's been over three months since Michael Brown, an 18-year old African American resident of Ferguson, Missouri, was shot and killed by a white police officer named Darren Wilson.  Brown was unarmed.  He also happened to be a suspect in a convenience store robbery, according to police.  Since then, things have been rather tense in the St. Louis suburb as police, demonstrators and the rest of America waited for the other shoe to drop.

Monday was the day it did drop.  A grand jury, after months of investigation and inquiry, had decided not to indict Wilson.  A jury that reportedly included nine whites and three African Americans.  Not that it was unexpected, mind you.  It's just that they and most other juries still believe officers wearing blue uniforms can do no wrong, despite possible evidence to the contrary.  Not unlike looking the other way when Our Heroes in khakis commit war crimes in the name of Freedom and Democracy.

Despite pleas from Brown's parents, President Barack Obama and the governor of Missouri to remain calm, it was obvious to all that once the decision was announced, Ferguson would erupt.  And erupt it did.  Bottles, rocks and tear gas have been flung.  Cars and businesses were torched.  Stores were looted.  Scores of people arrested.  Just like every other case of civil insurrection since at least the 1960s, except this one was played out live on TV.

It's understandable to see why African Americans in Ferguson and elsewhere feel the way they do about the grand jury verdict.  They have felt that they've been given a raw deal by white-dominated law enforcement, government and society in general for keeping them poverty-stricken, drug-addicted, and forced to live in areas where violence thrives.  It's been that way for centuries.

So the answer lies in burning and looting your own neighborhood, setting back progress for years if not decades?   That's probably because most protesters don't have access to the superior firepower law enforcement possesses, so they have to have something to retaliate against.  But they end up hurting themselves.

The Civil Rights Movement may be a chapter in the history textbook you've already forgotten, but it does serve up a valuable reminder:  Working for change is a lot more effective than tossing bricks.  Being in a position of authority doesn't mean you have to act like a jerk.  Respect is a two-way street.  Bromides aside, the days ahead in Ferguson, Missouri should tell us a lot about how race relations in America have and haven't changed.  And also why the legacy of Michael Brown and others who ended up just like him isn't to shoot first and ask questions later.