I'm sure all of you are well aware of what I might be talking about by the headline of Ferguson, MO. If not, I will briefly break it down. A black male, Michael Brown, was shot and killed by a white cop, Darren Wilson in August. The community was upset. People were supporting Brown by protesting or raising their hands and saying, "Don't shoot.". People were supporting Wilson, because he is a cop. Rioting also ensues. Earlier this week Wilson was not indicted for killing Brown. The community protests. People are sad for Brown and his family. People are happy for Wilson. Rioting ensues.
This is basically all I, or really anyone knows of this situation, because we were not there and have to rely on the internet to tell us things. Those are the basics, though the story keeps changing from Brown robbed a convenient store, to Wilson only thought Brown robbed a convenient store. That Brown was unarmed to that he was armed. To Brown complied with Wilson, to Brown accosted Wilson.
In things like this, I find that everyone is lying and telling the truth at the same time. They might not be willingly lying or holding back facts, but there is always a bit that's a lie and a truth mixed up in all of the garbage. So, the logical thing to do, as an uninformed news reader (which we all are, because we were not there), is to throw it all out the window and look at the basics.
Regardless of whether Brown robbed anything, or cursed or was armed or accosted Wilson. He is a person who is now dead. It is sad. Really the only way the 'armed' part could even really count is if the cop car, the cop or other people were gunned down by this gun. They were not, so since you are not part of the court to determine anything, does it even really count? He may as well have been unarmed for all that he used this gun he is supposed to have been wielding.
Plus, kids are stupid. They are. I was stupid and so were you. I did and said a lot of things when I was younger and I can't believe I did or said. I have stolen from a store. Does that mean I should have been killed for it? No. A lot of you have shoplifted or were witness to your friend shoplifting. You or your friend you wouldn't think needed to die for it. People keep throwing around the fact that he robbed or shoplifted and the fact that he's now dead, like they go hand in hand. The last time I checked, the penalty in this country for stealing anything wasn't death. So, why are we worried whether or not he robbed or stole anything? You might think less of an adult who should know better, but a teenager? Not that it's right, people shouldn't shoplift. But you couldn't convince me or anyone I knew of that when we were teenagers. Besides my sister worked retail and everyone shop lifts. Little old grannies, middle aged white women who look like they can afford what they are shop lifting, everyone has in their lifetime stolen something, or actually continue to do it today. Why is everyone so judgy all of a sudden now that a black kid may or may not have robbed a convenient store for some cigars. Even if you're all up in arms over theft. The shop owners or customers were not beat up or killed. The shop was not destroyed. Cigars cost what, $5 total? It's petty theft. Sure it's not the right thing to do, but honestly why are people making it out like it was $5 million dollars in theft and a trail of bloodied people in the wake?
On the point of verbal abuse/threats/accosting. What teenager as never tried to buck authority in some way or another? And as far as accosting goes. It's always someones word vs another of who pushed whom first. It's trivial. I know there's such a thing as you can't hit a cop, which is ridiculous to me, because they have every right to hit you.
As far as the cop goes. I have seen, with my own eyes, good cops and bad cops. I have seen cops slam my friends into the side of a car and shove them into it, just because they wanted them off of school property after school, when one could still be on school property without it being past hours or weird. I have seen those same cops try and control morning traffic; they tell you to stop, so you stop. Then they tell you to go, so you start going and then they tell you to stop again like you were doing something wrong. Over and over again until you finally just have to go because you are in the middle of the road. They smirked at you every time they stopped you from going, after they'd given the clear command to go. Then they tell the principle to try and get you suspended because you were not following their authority and were clearly in violation. I have seen those same cops intimidate, harass and threaten kids during school hours.
I have seen cops pull me aside in a store because I wasn't white enough and search me and my things, and appear upset that they couldn't catch me with anything. I have seen cops witness my very white friend shoplift and let them walk out of the store and still search me, and be upset they couldn't catch me at anything.
I have gone through a yellow light, before it turned red, with several other cars zooming after me when it is red, but I'm the only one pulled over and given a ticket, even though I tell him it's legal to go through a yellow light. He agreed while trying not to agree and said he had to catch someone.
I have also been the shoplifter and when the cops arrived I told them not to call my mom, that she was crazy, but they didn't believe me although they were nice from the get go; and when my mom arrived and they saw how insane she was they actually mouthed, "I'm sorry" to me, and they actually meant it.
I was pulled over for not having an updated license plate, and the cop was very nice and didn't write me a ticket because the plate was in the vehicle. I have had a cop pull me over years earlier for the same reason. The tag was in the vehicle, he did not care, was rude and condescending and slammed me with a ticket anyways.
I have been in fender benders and whether I'm at fault or not there have been asshole cops who wanted me to be in the wrong, when clearly I wasn't and witnesses (unaffiliated with me) want to tell them I'm not, but they don't want to listen. And I've had the same incidences where the cops are nice and just doing their job and don't pass any judgement on any person involved and listen to the witnesses, etc.
So, who is Darren Wilson? Is he an asshole cop on a power trip? Or is he just a person, just trying to do their job? Maybe he made a mistake? Maybe he didn't? Who of us really know? I will say that his latest testimony that Brown used Wilsons gun and pointed at his hip so Wilson felt his life was in danger, screams BS to me. It's your hip. It's not your stomach or your head or your heart. Sure you might not want to get shot, but fearing for your life? I don't know about that. Or the fact that he's not sad he had to kill someone. Doesn't look too favourable for him being a nice person.
But regardless, a person is dead. Perhaps he made mistakes that day and perhaps he didn't. Perhaps he only made a few. None of those mistakes, even if they are true, warranted his death. I will never believe he got what was coming to him, in conjunction with what he may or may not have done that day, nor will I even think that he should have been shot, or that the cop couldn't have made a better decision in handling the situation.
I might feel differently if everyone involved was saying Brown had just slaughtered some kittens and ate a few babies and ruthlessly killed a bunch of people and laughed about it and assaulted the cop and bystanders with the heads of his fallen enemies and then drank the blood of his friend and any other truly horrible thing. But none of that is even close to being what happened. So, I still stand by the fact that that kid should not be dead right now and it's so sad, and his poor family and friends.
I also want to talk about the rioting, but first I will say that I am aware that the majority of the people of the community are simply protesting, not rioting. The protesting, I will agree all day, is because the people of the community feel side-stepped, that no one is listening, that they want things to change, that they are angry and sad. That is very true.
Rioters however thrive on chaos. Rioting is something that I do not understand. And if the family of the person who was killed have to tell you to stop rioting, you are a problem. Period. Yet, there are people supporting the rioting and this I do not understand as well. I think they do not understand. I think they are trying to lump all of the people in Ferguson in with the rioters and make it all OK. That they were all robbed of a person from their community and yay for them. And this is confusing to me.
There is one article by the Huffington Post, that was trying to sympathize with the rioting by combining peaceful protests turned bloody from the past into full out rioting. As far as I am aware, the peaceful protesters of Ferguson are not turning to rioting and looting; they are two different camps of people. And the historical examples are of peaceful protests where the national guard starts things and people may or may not fight back or resist since they are being shot at or beaten to death, but still these examples do not lead to rioting or looting, so I'm unsure where this article was really going.
What the article tried to touch on, but I feel veered off too quickly and went somewhere else and then their article did not make sense, was about your right to a peaceful assembly, but that the government will ALWAYS call out the national guard which never works out well and causes confusion to an otherwise wonderful thing. Preparing for violence tends to lead to violence; violence that is not instigated by the protesters but by the people afraid that the protesters will be violent. Which is true. The article also wanted to cite that it's always only about non white people, but then use an example of an all white people incident (Kent State), so that was illogical. But I will agree, that the establishment does get their panties in a wad over any assembled group because they are all seen as a threat. The larger the group, the larger the perceived threat. I will also agree that there seems to be more fear when the assembled group is primarily made up of non white people, and that is a good point to remark on, only the author never really followed that through to a non rambling conclusion either. There is more fear in the establishment over non white protesters. Why is the establishment afraid of peaceful protest and primarily peaceful protest from non whites? Very good question. Too bad that article didn't flesh that out more.
And it is not to say that there have been no incidents with the peaceful protesting. But the rioting/looting and the protesting are completely different.
In addition to accepting the rioting and looting by trying to connect past protests turned violent, people are always saying to get over it because this is what people who are angry do and that no one cared when such and such people rioted over a football game or there is violence or rioting on Black Friday, etc, any other time white people riot or loot.
And those people are right. There are a lot of incidences where white people riot or loot and it does not garner nearly the same amount of coverage or infamy as non white riots or looting. And for the most part, people don't think anything wrong about it. This I do not understand either.
I do not condone any rioting or looting. It's massed hysteria, it's frenzy, it's heightened emotion gone wrong. It is a lower wave length, very animal like. I find it to be a waste of time and I do not understand people instigating, participating, or turning a blind eye to it. Rioting is Rioting is Rioting. It's chaos and it's ridiculous.
I will admit my sister briefly laugh over French rioting. From the time James Hetfield was injured by the pyrotechnics and Metallica had to cancel their show, so Montreal rioted. Or the time that the French government only thought about possibly changing something and France rioted. Obviously not all of France or all of Montreal rioted. And it's probably bad of us to laugh because we are like, "Oh the French are so crazy!" But that only lasts a few seconds and then we're like, "Ugh, rioting, who does that?! That's ridiculous."
People want to cite that rioting and looting is helpful and gets things changed, gets people to listen to you. This is apparently only true if you live in France. If you were successful enough to riot and revolt and overthrow your entire kingdom several hundred years ago, and continue to riot just about every time something you don't like happens, that seems to get results. I will not say it is the right way, but that is apparently how France rolls since the Revolution. Does it work here or other places? Absolutely not. Not one time has anyone gotten what they wanted, as far as change, from rioting. It just creates chaos and misery for everyone involved.
Also, I would like to expand a bit more on my previous statement, where only a minority amount of that community is rioting and looting. It is getting huge air time... but why? It is a good question to ponder why white people rioting after their football team lost (or won) gets hardly a mention, but when the people are not white, you can't escape the news of it. One should not really ask themselves why people are rioting, but why this is all the media wants to show you. Also it is worth pondering why the rioting and looting at everywhere in the news, but there's hardly mention of the majority of that community who are peacefully protesting and being abused because of it. Why are we not hearing and seeing more of the community that is actually doing something that could bring about change?
This is basically all I, or really anyone knows of this situation, because we were not there and have to rely on the internet to tell us things. Those are the basics, though the story keeps changing from Brown robbed a convenient store, to Wilson only thought Brown robbed a convenient store. That Brown was unarmed to that he was armed. To Brown complied with Wilson, to Brown accosted Wilson.
In things like this, I find that everyone is lying and telling the truth at the same time. They might not be willingly lying or holding back facts, but there is always a bit that's a lie and a truth mixed up in all of the garbage. So, the logical thing to do, as an uninformed news reader (which we all are, because we were not there), is to throw it all out the window and look at the basics.
Regardless of whether Brown robbed anything, or cursed or was armed or accosted Wilson. He is a person who is now dead. It is sad. Really the only way the 'armed' part could even really count is if the cop car, the cop or other people were gunned down by this gun. They were not, so since you are not part of the court to determine anything, does it even really count? He may as well have been unarmed for all that he used this gun he is supposed to have been wielding.
Plus, kids are stupid. They are. I was stupid and so were you. I did and said a lot of things when I was younger and I can't believe I did or said. I have stolen from a store. Does that mean I should have been killed for it? No. A lot of you have shoplifted or were witness to your friend shoplifting. You or your friend you wouldn't think needed to die for it. People keep throwing around the fact that he robbed or shoplifted and the fact that he's now dead, like they go hand in hand. The last time I checked, the penalty in this country for stealing anything wasn't death. So, why are we worried whether or not he robbed or stole anything? You might think less of an adult who should know better, but a teenager? Not that it's right, people shouldn't shoplift. But you couldn't convince me or anyone I knew of that when we were teenagers. Besides my sister worked retail and everyone shop lifts. Little old grannies, middle aged white women who look like they can afford what they are shop lifting, everyone has in their lifetime stolen something, or actually continue to do it today. Why is everyone so judgy all of a sudden now that a black kid may or may not have robbed a convenient store for some cigars. Even if you're all up in arms over theft. The shop owners or customers were not beat up or killed. The shop was not destroyed. Cigars cost what, $5 total? It's petty theft. Sure it's not the right thing to do, but honestly why are people making it out like it was $5 million dollars in theft and a trail of bloodied people in the wake?
On the point of verbal abuse/threats/accosting. What teenager as never tried to buck authority in some way or another? And as far as accosting goes. It's always someones word vs another of who pushed whom first. It's trivial. I know there's such a thing as you can't hit a cop, which is ridiculous to me, because they have every right to hit you.
As far as the cop goes. I have seen, with my own eyes, good cops and bad cops. I have seen cops slam my friends into the side of a car and shove them into it, just because they wanted them off of school property after school, when one could still be on school property without it being past hours or weird. I have seen those same cops try and control morning traffic; they tell you to stop, so you stop. Then they tell you to go, so you start going and then they tell you to stop again like you were doing something wrong. Over and over again until you finally just have to go because you are in the middle of the road. They smirked at you every time they stopped you from going, after they'd given the clear command to go. Then they tell the principle to try and get you suspended because you were not following their authority and were clearly in violation. I have seen those same cops intimidate, harass and threaten kids during school hours.
I have seen cops pull me aside in a store because I wasn't white enough and search me and my things, and appear upset that they couldn't catch me with anything. I have seen cops witness my very white friend shoplift and let them walk out of the store and still search me, and be upset they couldn't catch me at anything.
I have gone through a yellow light, before it turned red, with several other cars zooming after me when it is red, but I'm the only one pulled over and given a ticket, even though I tell him it's legal to go through a yellow light. He agreed while trying not to agree and said he had to catch someone.
I have also been the shoplifter and when the cops arrived I told them not to call my mom, that she was crazy, but they didn't believe me although they were nice from the get go; and when my mom arrived and they saw how insane she was they actually mouthed, "I'm sorry" to me, and they actually meant it.
I was pulled over for not having an updated license plate, and the cop was very nice and didn't write me a ticket because the plate was in the vehicle. I have had a cop pull me over years earlier for the same reason. The tag was in the vehicle, he did not care, was rude and condescending and slammed me with a ticket anyways.
I have been in fender benders and whether I'm at fault or not there have been asshole cops who wanted me to be in the wrong, when clearly I wasn't and witnesses (unaffiliated with me) want to tell them I'm not, but they don't want to listen. And I've had the same incidences where the cops are nice and just doing their job and don't pass any judgement on any person involved and listen to the witnesses, etc.
So, who is Darren Wilson? Is he an asshole cop on a power trip? Or is he just a person, just trying to do their job? Maybe he made a mistake? Maybe he didn't? Who of us really know? I will say that his latest testimony that Brown used Wilsons gun and pointed at his hip so Wilson felt his life was in danger, screams BS to me. It's your hip. It's not your stomach or your head or your heart. Sure you might not want to get shot, but fearing for your life? I don't know about that. Or the fact that he's not sad he had to kill someone. Doesn't look too favourable for him being a nice person.
But regardless, a person is dead. Perhaps he made mistakes that day and perhaps he didn't. Perhaps he only made a few. None of those mistakes, even if they are true, warranted his death. I will never believe he got what was coming to him, in conjunction with what he may or may not have done that day, nor will I even think that he should have been shot, or that the cop couldn't have made a better decision in handling the situation.
I might feel differently if everyone involved was saying Brown had just slaughtered some kittens and ate a few babies and ruthlessly killed a bunch of people and laughed about it and assaulted the cop and bystanders with the heads of his fallen enemies and then drank the blood of his friend and any other truly horrible thing. But none of that is even close to being what happened. So, I still stand by the fact that that kid should not be dead right now and it's so sad, and his poor family and friends.
I also want to talk about the rioting, but first I will say that I am aware that the majority of the people of the community are simply protesting, not rioting. The protesting, I will agree all day, is because the people of the community feel side-stepped, that no one is listening, that they want things to change, that they are angry and sad. That is very true.
Rioters however thrive on chaos. Rioting is something that I do not understand. And if the family of the person who was killed have to tell you to stop rioting, you are a problem. Period. Yet, there are people supporting the rioting and this I do not understand as well. I think they do not understand. I think they are trying to lump all of the people in Ferguson in with the rioters and make it all OK. That they were all robbed of a person from their community and yay for them. And this is confusing to me.
There is one article by the Huffington Post, that was trying to sympathize with the rioting by combining peaceful protests turned bloody from the past into full out rioting. As far as I am aware, the peaceful protesters of Ferguson are not turning to rioting and looting; they are two different camps of people. And the historical examples are of peaceful protests where the national guard starts things and people may or may not fight back or resist since they are being shot at or beaten to death, but still these examples do not lead to rioting or looting, so I'm unsure where this article was really going.
What the article tried to touch on, but I feel veered off too quickly and went somewhere else and then their article did not make sense, was about your right to a peaceful assembly, but that the government will ALWAYS call out the national guard which never works out well and causes confusion to an otherwise wonderful thing. Preparing for violence tends to lead to violence; violence that is not instigated by the protesters but by the people afraid that the protesters will be violent. Which is true. The article also wanted to cite that it's always only about non white people, but then use an example of an all white people incident (Kent State), so that was illogical. But I will agree, that the establishment does get their panties in a wad over any assembled group because they are all seen as a threat. The larger the group, the larger the perceived threat. I will also agree that there seems to be more fear when the assembled group is primarily made up of non white people, and that is a good point to remark on, only the author never really followed that through to a non rambling conclusion either. There is more fear in the establishment over non white protesters. Why is the establishment afraid of peaceful protest and primarily peaceful protest from non whites? Very good question. Too bad that article didn't flesh that out more.
And it is not to say that there have been no incidents with the peaceful protesting. But the rioting/looting and the protesting are completely different.
In addition to accepting the rioting and looting by trying to connect past protests turned violent, people are always saying to get over it because this is what people who are angry do and that no one cared when such and such people rioted over a football game or there is violence or rioting on Black Friday, etc, any other time white people riot or loot.
And those people are right. There are a lot of incidences where white people riot or loot and it does not garner nearly the same amount of coverage or infamy as non white riots or looting. And for the most part, people don't think anything wrong about it. This I do not understand either.
I do not condone any rioting or looting. It's massed hysteria, it's frenzy, it's heightened emotion gone wrong. It is a lower wave length, very animal like. I find it to be a waste of time and I do not understand people instigating, participating, or turning a blind eye to it. Rioting is Rioting is Rioting. It's chaos and it's ridiculous.
I will admit my sister briefly laugh over French rioting. From the time James Hetfield was injured by the pyrotechnics and Metallica had to cancel their show, so Montreal rioted. Or the time that the French government only thought about possibly changing something and France rioted. Obviously not all of France or all of Montreal rioted. And it's probably bad of us to laugh because we are like, "Oh the French are so crazy!" But that only lasts a few seconds and then we're like, "Ugh, rioting, who does that?! That's ridiculous."
People want to cite that rioting and looting is helpful and gets things changed, gets people to listen to you. This is apparently only true if you live in France. If you were successful enough to riot and revolt and overthrow your entire kingdom several hundred years ago, and continue to riot just about every time something you don't like happens, that seems to get results. I will not say it is the right way, but that is apparently how France rolls since the Revolution. Does it work here or other places? Absolutely not. Not one time has anyone gotten what they wanted, as far as change, from rioting. It just creates chaos and misery for everyone involved.
Also, I would like to expand a bit more on my previous statement, where only a minority amount of that community is rioting and looting. It is getting huge air time... but why? It is a good question to ponder why white people rioting after their football team lost (or won) gets hardly a mention, but when the people are not white, you can't escape the news of it. One should not really ask themselves why people are rioting, but why this is all the media wants to show you. Also it is worth pondering why the rioting and looting at everywhere in the news, but there's hardly mention of the majority of that community who are peacefully protesting and being abused because of it. Why are we not hearing and seeing more of the community that is actually doing something that could bring about change?
Lets see the bigger picture here, people. Throw out all the useless information and actually dig deeper. Ask the questions you don't normally ask. When you see some meme saying something you don't like. Ask why you don't like it. Ask yourself what the bigger picture is here. Listen to the people of Ferguson who are actually saying something. They're telling you that no one is listening to them that is why they have taken to the streets in protest. Listen to what they are saying. To ignore them is to slap them in the face, to tell them they have nothing important to say, that their words don't matter. There is always truth in what people say. Ask why the national guard is always called out when people only want to protest. Gather what you know historically and in the modern of how violence actually starts. Be logical, but also encompass grey area's since life is made up entirely of grey area's. Have some compassion. Weigh both sides. Find what's really important.
Of course I can say all of this, but at the end of the day there will probably still be people who don't understand. There will probably still be name calling and blaming. There will probably still be people who want to be heard, while people refuse to listen.
I suppose the best thing to say is it should never be 'us' vs 'them'. We should all be in this together; as humans, as equals. Conversing, not shouting. Cooperating, not dominating. Working together because we really all do want the same basic things. Having love and compassion because we are all the same people.
So, I'll end with this.
Of course I can say all of this, but at the end of the day there will probably still be people who don't understand. There will probably still be name calling and blaming. There will probably still be people who want to be heard, while people refuse to listen.
I suppose the best thing to say is it should never be 'us' vs 'them'. We should all be in this together; as humans, as equals. Conversing, not shouting. Cooperating, not dominating. Working together because we really all do want the same basic things. Having love and compassion because we are all the same people.
So, I'll end with this.
- To the family of Michael Brown and to the community who feels this loss, my deepest, sincerest & most heartfelt condolences.
- To the shop owners who have to rebuild, I am sorry that you lost your livelihood in the midst of a raging bull.
- To the rioters and looters, stop shitting where you eat. This is your community, these are your businesses. Stop making messes, causing confusion, giving a bad name and rap to your fellow community inhabitants, stop taking momentum and voices from the protesters who are actually fighting for something, stop being greedy, go do some yoga or sing that shit out. Your behaviour is very selfish and does not hurt who you think it should hurt, but a wide range of people who probably never did anything to you, and some you might count as friends.
- To the protesters, keep up the good fight. Get your messages heard. Don't let the man keep you down. I support you, although I don't know if that matters.
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