Public Comment

Predictably the grand jury’s decision not to indict Officer Wilson triggered outrage in Ferguson and communities across the country who see Brown’s killing as part of a wide-scale pattern of police abuse of people of color. Law enforcement has offered little credible explanation why Brown’s body was allowed to remain on the street for 4.5 hours. There is little doubt that if the teenager had a lighter skin, the outcome would have been different. In an obvious effort to justify the shooting, Officer Wilson described Michael Brown as a raging “Hulk Hogan”. The prosecutor seems to have actively tried for a grand jury result absolving the officer’s actions. This was a show trial aimed at pacifying an angry black community who saw through the charade. 

In sharp contrast to the hyper-vigilant police presence in the predominant white business neighborhood of South Florissant, there was a total absence in the West part of town owned by black businesses. Tragically, every day some black or brown child is subject to the arbitrary violence of the state with little no recourse. In poor neighborhoods, blacks often lament there is little to live for because the odds of obtaining a good life is stacked against them. As President Kennedy observed “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.