I usually don't like posts to be simple rants on a topic. But today I feel like ranting.
Don't know what to say about the state of our country, sitting here watching the steady snow fall from a nor'easter hitting on the biggest travel day of the year.
It is so sad. And so predictable. And so prevalent. Good thing the Supreme Court decided institutional racism was over in America. Too bad they forgot to tell Darren Wilson and the Ferguson police department. And Robert McCulloch the prosecutor who ran the grand jury like he was Wilson's defense attorney.
Point automatic rifles at federal officials on behalf of a rancher breaking laws in Nevada and you're a hero and a patriot and a freedom fighter. Wonder how that would work out for a black rancher and some armed supporters?
I don't know what happened that August day in Ferguson. I wasn't there. But from the various accounts I have my suspicions what transpired but I'll admit that is rank speculation.
But what seems irrefutable to me is that at the end of it all there was a white cop chasing an unarmed black man who he likened to a "demon" and "Hulk Hogan". So afraid for his life and safety he pursued the subject and didn't call for backup.
And it seems obvious that Michael Brown had essentially surrendered at the end. Already shot, wounded, arms raised. Only the cop and one eyewitness said Brown was charging menacingly at the end before the fatal shots were fired. And that one witness wrote diary entries that they were in Ferguson that day to see if there was a reason they should start looking at blacks as people rather than "n*****s". Really credible witness there.
Other witnesses seemed pretty unified in saying Brown had given up and had his arms raised in a surrender posture, not in a threatening manner. But their accounts don't count for anything it seems.
And I find it very unsettling that the words Officer Wilson uses to describe Brown very closely mirror the descriptions given by the LA officers who beat Rodney King. Even catching them in the act on video tape wasn't enough to convict them. All you have to do is play the "scary big black man" card. It's the stand your ground and police's equivalent of "get out of jail free".
Sure I'm Darren Wilson and I'm 6'4" and in no way a toothpick. But that demon was 6'5" and big and black and scary. Did I mention he was black?
It is obvious Wilson did not see Michael Brown as a human being. He was something else. Something scary and menacing that needed to be put down.
I cried on Inauguration Day in 2009 thinking how far this country had come and how wonderful it was to see America's promise being fulfilled in some huge, meaningful way.
This Thanksgiving Day 2014 I cry again for America.
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