Lay Off the President

It appears that the President is facing some serious criticism on the left for his speech last night. They are mad that he "didn't give the speech they want him to." President went out and addressed the nation after a national event, an event he was uniquely suited to speak on, and gave what I found to be an appropriate message. He appealed for calm and non-violence. He urged respect for our legal system. He urged our police officers to respect the rights of the people, even as he acknowledged their importance. He called the events a tragedy, and quoted from the parents of the victim. What he did not do is go out and rail against our courts and grand jury system, hammer police officers, or rip the prosecutor. He couldn't have. He shouldn't have.

The President was appropriately calm and gave the right message. I know, some on the left want him to be a radical, and go out there and call for massive change within our society. I'm glad he's not a radical, and I recognized that he never was from the start. There are certainly changes that need to be made in light of the events of Ferguson, and other events in recent months, but last night was a time for him to play healer-in-chief. He did that well. He's the President of the United States, not some rag-tag professional protestor. Urging respect for the rule of law and peaceful protest is exactly what he should be doing, not inciting a riot to appease people that are going to criticize him anyway.

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Dear Ferguson (Part 2)

It's been twenty-four hours, and I think now I have my thoughts on Ferguson, Michael Brown, and Darren Wilson a little more put together. After a day, some of the raw emotion wears off, and you're left with the reality of the situation.

I start by thinking back to the moment itself- why? Why did Michael Brown, a kid who had no prior record of trouble with the cops, and who had only committed a petty theft (not the "thug criminal" his detractors like to point out), feel that he should disobey Officer Wilson, and have an altercation with him? What made him feel so negatively toward that cop? By extension, why did Wilson fear Brown? Why, after having shot him twice, did he feel the need to shoot him again? Yes, Brown was a big kid, and yes Brown had an altercation with him already, but let's not pretend he's an NFL Defensive End or something. He was a twice shot, big kid. It's obvious to me that Brown felt extremely negative towards the police in Ferguson, something that didn't randomly just turn up in that one child on that one day. It's also very clear to me that Wilson felt extremely negatively towards the local youth, something born out in his testimony to the grand jury too. Whether Wilson is guilty of murder or not, there are bigger problems in Ferguson.

It's also clear to me that the prosecutor did not want this case from the get-go, and only took it to a grand jury because of public pressure. Charitably speaking, I imagine a prosecutor who has a good relationship to the police in the county, and once he saw some of the evidence knew that taking this to trial would end in an embarrassing loss, and a loss of the good will he had with police. A less charitable view of this is that he just threw the case because he was pre-disposed to side with the cops. I've never seen a prosecutor present both sides of the story at a grand jury, and i'm sure the same courtesy would not have been put forward if the shooting was the other way around here. I do get that the case was not winnable with the evidence they had, but the prosecutor doesn't have to be the one out there defending a grand jury clearing a suspect, and it looked really bad.

And even so, even if the case had no chance, we have to examine the fact that this keeps happening. It happened to Trayvon Martin. It happened to Michael Brown. Unarmed, young, black men are killed by armed men, and then the law finds them to have been the aggressor, and clears their killers. There are some awful racial stereotypes out there about black men, and clearly those stereotypes make black lives less safe within our society. Even beyond these cases, Eric Garner died of a heart attack during a physical altercation with police in Staten Island that both appeared unnecessary, and was prompted by Garner's "non-compliance" in the words of the cops. Why is it that black men are considered so threatening? Even beyond that, it feeds into why we had militarized police in Ferguson to respond to the initial angry protestors. It's very clear that this paranoia by law enforcement escalated a situation that should have never been this tense. It really is time for a discussion of how largely "white" people feel about black people.

It's also time for a conversation inside of the Democratic Party about race relations and police. We had State Senators who were African-American on TV last night criticizing the "party," and clarifying that they meant the white leadership (namely the DA and Governor), for not caring about Michael Brown and African-Americans at-large. There is a huge divide within America's left about the relationship of African-Americans and police, and how to bridge it. On a basic policy level, going along with Republican law enforcement ideas, such as mandatory minimum sentences, the "War on Drugs," and the militarization of police, has left a major constituency of the left feeling isolated and alone in their dealings with police. That surely can't continue.

I'll just never get the people who support Darren Wilson. I won't second guess the grand jury (based on what they saw, I understand their stance), but the man has something wrong with him. His stereotypical speak about Brown as a "hulk," his negative feelings towards the community he served, even his boasting in his first interviews that he would "do it again" all are signs about this man. Is he guilty of murder? Based on the evidence, probably not. This isn't some zero sum ball game though. Even if Wilson was not guilty of a crime, this is not the outcome we desire as a society. Stealing a pack of cigars should not be a death sentence for an 18 year old kid with no prior record, just because he lives in what we deem a "tough" town. Relations between the town and the cops shouldn't be so bad that this happens. Wilson might find it acceptable to "do it again," but it is most certainly not.

I have to confess that I can't believe this guy wasn't at least bound over for trial. Neither can the National Bar Association. At some point, you can empathize with the actual protestors out there, because it really doesn't make sense at all. I can understand why they fear that their lives matter less. There's a legitimate problem in this country that people of color don't think the law represents their needs and interests, or that their lives matter the same. Certainly we can't leave a chunk of our citizens out there living in this condition.

None of this should be confused with me supporting the rioting and looting that did go on last night. A body was found shot up in a car in Ferguson, the only death that I know of, but the burning of cars and businesses in Ferguson had no place in a civilized society. There should be prosecutions where possible. Let's not overstate that issue though. Ferguson has a little more than 21,000 people in the town, and well over 20,000 of them were in their homes last night, while a few hundred were peacefully protesting near municipal buildings. There were legitimate grievances, being aired by legitimately upset people. A few hundred troublemakers at most, some of them not even from Ferguson, some professional protestors, caused the scenes that Fox and others gloriously covered.

What happened in Ferguson is awful. A child was killed by a police officer, and the community does not believe it was justified, even though the courts do. This is a problem. This is a big problem in this country. You can mock it and focus on a messed up convenience store, or you can realize that the problem is much more serious than that.

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President Obama's Statement on the Ferguson Ruling

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McCulloch's Statement

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Dear Ferguson

As I write this, the streets of Ferguson are under siege between protestors, cops, and simple trouble makers. It's disheartening to watch. Some of these people in the streets are genuinely upset with what happened. In fact, most of them are. A small group is out there to cause problems, and rip a whole community apart. It's sad.

First, to the broader event itself- Michael Brown being shot isn't an isolated incident. It is, for the sense of the law, but make no mistake, everything that happened here is part of a larger issue. Michael Brown's attitude toward that cop, according to testimony, was a product of his perception of how the officer would treat him. Darren Wilson's decision to shoot him, out of fear for safety, was a product of his perception of Brown and the situation. That protestors poured into the streets was surely about more than one incident, and more so a product of an overall environment that was unhealthy. The scenes of militarized cops was also a product of perceptions from a broader feeling amidst the community. In short, Ferguson has a race problem, in it's government and police force, and in it's community. They don't trust each other, and that is unacceptable. With that said, the problem lies on the side of the government there. That must be fixed, by mobilization of the public to the ballot box.

To the incident itself though- it is not a matter of the police force on the whole, or a matter of Michael Brown as a kid. An unarmed 18 year old kid was shot by an armed officer of the law. The victim's color did not matter legally, but it absolutely matters to the situation. Unfortunately, there is no way to make everyone accept the legal justification here. You can't. Some people are just going to believe what they believe. That's it.

My personal feeling is that Darren Wilson was probably never going to be convicted. I also think he should have been indicted. Based on the evidence submitted, it appears that the most plausible, consistent witnesses were the ones who said Brown charged Wilson. I'm not going to get into calling some people liars and other people not, however just the fact that we're talking about different accounts means Wilson was going to win at trial. Even more important though are the forensics. The forensics pretty much made a conviction impossible. If there was blood in the car, it's pretty plausible to say the officer was in an altercation with the victim when he first shot him. Reasonable doubt would have been easy. Now I would love to know why we never heard exactly why Wilson felt threatened (and won't), as I would think that intent matters here. With that said, I want to know that for my own purposes, not for the purposes of guessing the jury's final verdict. With the evidence, and inconsistency in it, Wilson was never going to be convicted of a crime.

Now, with that said, I'm not totally clearing the prosecutor. First, I think many of his critics are playing into local politics. Robert McCulloch has been St. Louis County District Attorney for a while, and yes, he's pro-cop. Most DA's are. He's also being attacked in no small part for backing a white candidate against the African-American County Executive in this year's primary. So yes, that's a defense of him. I won't defend the case though. He failed to get an indictment on a cop for shooting an unarmed teenager, and that is partially because he was overly balanced in presenting his case. I wonder if the average African-American in St. Louis who shoots someone will have ALL of the evidence presented to a grand jury by a prosecutor. Seriously, he presented evidence helpful to the defense in his presentation. I do see why a prosecutor would rather lose at the grand jury by presenting too much evidence against a cop, rather than prosecuting them and losing. That's not an excuse to do it. He bungled the case, a case in which he probably could have received an indictment, if not a guilty verdict.

Tomorrow, opinions on this awful situation will largely fall along partisan, racial, ideological lines. If you watched FOX, and watched people looting the Ferguson Market, you'll talk about "thugs" and "criminals." If you watched MSNBC, you'll hear about "protestors." Let me say this- a kid was killed. That kid was black. He was killed by a white cop. No verdict will change the suspicions and real issues we have in our society over issues just like this. Many will believe the fix was in. The fact is, young black men have to worry about being shot by a police officer a lot more than I do. Whether Officer Darren Wilson should have been tried or not for killing Michael Brown was left to the grand jury, and I'd like to believe they did their job well. That's not the point though, because many people are where they started the day on this issue, because of what they perceive here. That is the problem, and that needs to be addressed. We need equal justice, and a lot of people don't feel they got it here, and a lot wouldn't have if the shoe was on the other foot. It's bad for America to let this continue.

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