I’m sure that many of you are aware of the latest tragic event that occurred in St. Louis this past weekend. For those who aren’t aware here are the facts! On August 11, 2014 an unarmed African American teenager by the name of Michael Brown was shot and killed by a Ferguson County Police officer. Brown’s body was left to bleed out in the street for hours before the authorities relocated his body. The Ferguson authorities placed the body in an unrecognizable vehicle and Lesley Mc Spadden mother of Michael Brown was denied the option to identify her son’s body. The Ferguson Police Department refuses to reveal the name of the white police officer that shot and killed Michael Brown. They did state that this particular officer is on paid administrative leave until further notice.
There have been many different stories that led up to the killing of Michael Brown. Some include that he stole something from the Quick Trip gas station and that’s why he was running away from the police. A quick trip employee later stated that Brown did not steal anything. There have been multiple eye witnesses stating that Brown was minding his business and the unknown police officer initiated physical harm on the unarmed teenager. Regardless of what exactly occurred, this death doesn’t make sense at all. How does an unarmed teenager get shot multiple times? Can the officer state that he was threatened so much by an unarmed black teenager to shoot him at least 9 times? The Ferguson police department has made some vague statements on what they want us to believe about the story but they are not really saying much at this time. It is apparent that the police is hiding information and buying time to get their story correct about what really happened.
The death of Michael Brown opened a lot of hurtful wounds for numerous people. Michael Brown is a reminder of all the people that have been mistreated by government officials. These situations are and have been happening for quite some time now across the globe and it is time for a change! A similar situation happened to me and my family so I can relate to the hurt that African Americans are feeling at this time. We feel ignored and we are tired of certain people getting away with things and thinking they are above the law.
There are a lot of issues that I could discuss about this matter. However, for this particular post my focus is on people, specifically African Americans who are judging others for their personal response to the intentional death of Michael Brown. There have been peaceful protesters and there are also those who are expressing themselves by rioting. I know there may be opportunist that are taking this time to use rioting and looting for thier own benefit. These are the people who’ve already initiated a plan to steal before Brown was executed but that is not the case for everyone. Violence and acting in an outraged manner is a natural reaction to a situation where someone close to you were taken away from you by force. Many are asking well what about the black on black crimes. “Blacks kill and commit crimes against each other every day”. I will respond by saying this, black on black crime is an issue as well as many other things but clearly it is not an issue in this case. I feel that people who are mentioning black on black crimes are attempting to take the focus off the real issue at hand. We have a far way to go as a culture and we will keep building but the real issue at hand is racism against blacks. People are also saying “Looting and damaging property won’t bring Michael back”. It is clear that looting and damaging property won’t bring a person who was executed back to life. But sitting back and allowing history to repeat itself won’t do the trick either.
There have always been people who deal with situations in a different manner. For example Martin Luther King Jr. was one who represented peace and turning the other cheek. Whereas Malcolm X was one who believed in retaliation against whoever were attempting to continue the control against our people. There has always been different ways to handle things but either method isn’t necessary wrong or right. When the situation happened to me I did not take a violent route but that doesn’t mean that I did not want to or that I’m not capable of doing such. Before you guys judge the reactions of those in St. Louis put yourself in their shoes, pray for peace and guidance for everyone, and do your research on how many unarmed African Americans are being gunned downed by white police officers. This situation seems to be common but then research how many white police officers gun down and kill unarmed whites.
People are tired of being oppressed and tired of their voices being unheard. You never know what you are capable of until something happens that directly effects you. So whether you think their actions are right, wrong, or justified, who are you to judge?
