Ferguson Almost Made Me Slip – Part 1
Protester being gassed in Ferguson. Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images
After two weeks (or more) away from my blog, I’m back. For about the last two weeks I’ve been reeling from news of Mike Brown, an unarmed black teenaged male who was shot dead by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. There has been either no incident report filed, or one hastily thrown together that has so many holes in it that it got picked apart and taken away from the media spotlight. Darren Wilson now has over $140,000 raised for what, I don’t know. His legal fees are being paid by his police union and it’s coming off more as a reward for killing an unarmed black teenager who allegedly stole some cigarillos and roughed up a convenience store clerk. The police didn’t confiscate the convenience store video until Friday 8/15 and said that there was a call in about a robbery at the convenience store, and that’s why Darren Wilson stopped Mike Brown and his friend Dorian Johnson.
Except that the convenience store didn’t call the robbery in, so there would have been no report of a robbery, right? Then the police chief said Darren Wilson stopped Mike Brown because he was walking in the street (jaywalking), and not for a robbery. Apparently there was a struggle at the car, Mike allegedly grabbed the gun and hit Wilson in the face, but Mike’s three autopsies showed no sign of struggle. President Obama sent Attorney General Eric Holder and the best FBI agents to Ferguson to investigate alongside Missouri, who isn’t trusted at this point to do a clean investigation. There have been protests demanding justice for Mike Brown, and a lot of mostly white people saying that Mike Brown was a thug who deserved to die and they are fully supporting Darren Wilson, who hasn’t spoken publicly about anything, nor have his family or friends. This case has reawakened the beast of American racism, and I’ve been in several bad moods about it.
Add to all of this the deaths in my life. My good friend Chrystal Camacho died in late July and her memorial service was 8/17. On the way to that memorial service, my close friend Kim’s father, Richard Anderson, died in Richmond, VA. While at work on Thursday 8/21, I found out that my cousin DeLois Keene died. Then on Sunday 8/24 I found out that Chrystal’s mother passed earlier this month. The month isn’t even over and there are three funerals I have/had to attend. Watching the Constitution get trampled every night on a live feed from Ferguson didn’t help my mental state while sleeping 5-6 hours a night. All of this contributed to my bad mood.
When I get in a bad mood and don’t pray about it, I’m prone to messing up (sinning) and seeking affection from some dangerous (for me) places. Now, if you want to know if I fell, slipped, and tripped…I came close. I just wanted someone to understand my frustrations with the week, to hear me out. I’ve been basically live-blogging on Facebook and Twitter got get this out, but no one personally connected to me really has been around to hear me. I also didn’t want to burden anyone with it, and some friends aren’t watching the news or only hear the main news networks’ coverage about it, which has been lacking when compared with on-the-ground reports from Twitter from journalists and locals who were getting gassed during the police crackdowns on the peaceful protests. Police started shooting, then I heard gunshots, then there was looting the cops were ignoring, then the cops started harassing journalists and peaceful protesters. I saw all of this on 6 live feeds with my own eyes. Finally, CNN, FOX, and MSNBC started getting gassed and picked on too, and the coverage got a little fairer with MSNBC, NPR, and Al Jazeera America giving the most accurate coverage. (It was heartbreaking to read Palestinians from Gaza advising Ferguson protesters on how to deal with tear gas. Like…what in the world?!)
To be continued…
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Category: Politics
