I’ve been following the story surrounding Ferguson. \u00a0To sum it up, a white police officer shot and killed an unarmed black teenager. \u00a0The young man was shot 6 times, many of the wounds defensive, and two of those shots were to the head. \u00a0The one that killed him was through the top of the head.<\/p>\n
Since the shooting, there have been outcries. \u00a0The police released a video of the young man robbing a convenience store just before the shooting took place. \u00a0There have been protests, both peaceful and violent. \u00a0The Missouri governor executed an emergency curfew. \u00a0Then the national guard was summoned and the curfew was lifted. \u00a0But there is still turmoil in the area, and President Obama seems reluctant to talk about the situation.<\/p>\n
That’s a brief summary. \u00a0I know that I’ve left out a lot of the nuance, but my purpose with this post isn’t to rehash the news. \u00a0I want to talk about the\u00a0actual cause, how this could have been avoided, and what can be done to unravel this situation.<\/p>\n
First of all, I don’t think race is the primary cause. \u00a0I’m not saying that race isn’t an issue, or that Ferguson enjoys racial equality. \u00a0I’m saying that the\u00a0primary\u00a0<\/strong>cause was not racism.<\/p>\n The primary cause was power.<\/p>\n John Oliver sums it up<\/a> very well. \u00a0He lays out all of the details of local police getting armed as the military are, but without the training. \u00a0What was it Einstein said? \u00a0“You cannot simultaneously prepare for and prevent war.”<\/p>\n But maybe the military arms weren’t the problem in the shooting. \u00a0The camo fatigues and assault rifles didn’t really seem to show up\u00a0in Ferguson until after the shooting. \u00a0The escalation of force was a response to the people’s reaction to the shooting.<\/p>\n And that’s the problem. \u00a0Instead of offering sympathy to the family that lost a child, or looking for a way to keep this kind of thing from happening again, an effort was made to suppress the reaction. \u00a0Instead of taking responsibility for killing an unarmed kid, a video was released in attempt to villainize him.<\/p>\n The reaction of the police, and then the governor, was not one of reaching out to support and comfort the people that they are sworn to protect and serve. \u00a0It was more like the reaction of a parent scolding an unruly child. \u00a0That’s power, and the root of the problem.<\/p>\n Maybe race was a secondary issue in the shooting. \u00a0I don’t know. \u00a0It has certainly blown up to be a bigger issue after the fact. \u00a0I just finished reading a story<\/a>\u00a0that paints this whole situation as a race issue that President Obama, endowed with his darker skin, should be able to defuse.<\/p>\n