I’m going to weigh in with some comments on the Ferguson, MO situation and the difficult national issues that it touches upon. Before I offer my own thoughts, I would like to summarize a few articles by a few pundits who I feel offered some very cogent observations about the tragic events that have transpired over the past 2 weeks.<\/p>\n
Charles Blow in the NY Times states<\/a> that <\/p>\n discussion about issues in the black community too often revolves around a false choice: systemic racial bias or poor personal choices. In fact, these factors are interwoven like the fingers of clasped hands. People make choices within the context of their circumstances and those circumstances are affected \u2014 sometimes severely \u2014 by bias . . . These biases do material damage as well as help breed a sense of disenfranchisement and despair, which in turn can have a depressive effect on aspiration and motivation. This all feeds back on itself . . . If we want to truly address the root of the unrest in Ferguson, we have to ask ourselves how we can break this cycle.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Kareem Abdul Jabbar says that the ultimate problem<\/a> is more a matter of bias and class presumptions against those living in poverty.<\/p>\n This fist-shaking of everyone\u2019s racial agenda distracts America from the larger issue that the targets of police overreaction are based less on skin color and more on an even worse Ebola-level affliction: being poor. Of course, to many in America, being a person of color is synonymous with being poor, and being poor is synonymous with being a criminal. Ironically, this misperception is true even among the poor. And that\u2019s how the status quo wants it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In an article that was printed before important facts about the shooting became available, Professor John McWhorter weighed in against intentional racial bias and brutality on the part of the police. But Prof. McWhorter tempered<\/a> his premature criticisms by observing that black communities need to focus more on the problems of violence and criminal behavior:<\/p>\n Looking inward. There\u2019s something else, harder to discuss but, like so many such things, urgent nonetheless. Deep breath: The black community cannot pretend that the stereotype of black men as violent comes out of nowhere . . . Young black men commit about 50 percent of the murders in this country, 14 times more than young white men. Or, where do murder rates among young white men go up each summer the way they do among black ones in cities like Chicago? \u201cFlash robs\u201d happen when large groups of teens beset a store and steal from it, and I\u2019m sorry, but these are rarely white affairs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Megan McArdle pointed out that<\/a> Ferguson has been undergoing relatively rapid demographic change: it had a white majority in 1990, an almost even split in 2000, and a black majority in 2010. However, its political leaders and police remain mostly white. Whose fault is that? Did the white-dominated political organizations in Ferguson intentionally refrain from recruiting black candidates and government employees? Or has the new black majority failed to politically organize and provide a base for potential black candidates? Probably both.<\/p>\n This is comparable in some ways to how Newark, NJ had a white mayor until 1970 with a largely white police department until the mid to late 70s, even though Newark has had a black majority population since 1965. And thus there were civic disturbances\/riots<\/a> in Newark in the late 60s. Perhaps Ferguson is now going thru a similar process, unfortunately.<\/p>\n And last but not least, Mark Steyn decries the lack<\/a> of camera recording systems for local police, despite all the aid provided by the federal government for military-style weaponry. <\/p>\n The most basic problem is that we will never know for certain what happened. Why? Because the Ferguson cruiser did not have a camera recording the incident. That’s simply not credible. “Law enforcement” in Ferguson apparently has at its disposal tear gas, riot gear, armored vehicles and machine guns …but not a dashcam. That’s ridiculous. I remember a few years ago when my one-man police department in New Hampshire purchased a camera for its cruiser. It’s about as cheap and basic a police expense as there is. And, if we have to have federal subsidy programs for municipal police departments, we should scrap the one that gives them the second-hand military hardware from Tikrit and Kandahar and replace it with one that ensures every patrol car has a camera.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Now, my own comments on the matter.<\/p>\n First, I\u2019m not going to add anything but general agreement to the many valid criticisms against the initial response to community protests by the Ferguson and Saint Louis County police. Two days after Michael Brown was killed, the Los Angeles PD killed a young mentally ill black man in questionable circumstances. There have been community tensions<\/a> in L.A., but no looting or tear gas yet; the LAPD seems more proactive in engaging the community in an informative and respectful fashion.<\/p>\n And while I’m not adding anything, let me also not add anything to the valid criticisms against the national media figures who rush to judgement in every white-against-black incident, regardless of the particulars. They obviously arrived early and are staying late in Ferguson. As commentator LZ Granderson said<\/a>, “the black community does a disservice to itself when it allows charlatans to come into these situations, make a name for themselves and then evacuate the situation. Now, I could drop names but I think we all know who I’m talking about.”<\/p>\n As to the shooting incident itself, here’s what I will add:<\/p>\n 1.) The basic facts are starting to become clearer; but a dramatic fault line remains between how the police and how the black community (a very vocal portion of it, anyway) interpret those facts. In a nutshell, who started it? Who was the aggressor and who the victim? <\/p>\n 2.) Some black voices (and liberal white voices) cast Officer Darren Wilson as the aggressor, claiming that he used unnecessary deadly force in a situation that did not call for the use of a gun, thus evidencing an anti-black racial intent, an intent allegedly typical of many white police officers. Under this interpretation, victim Michael Brown was physically assaulted during the officer\u2019s stop of the victim. When the victim attempted to run away from this assault, the officer pulled his weapon and verbally threatened to shoot him, perhaps even firing an initial shot that missed. <\/p>\n Brown thus stopped, turned around and attempted to surrender; he attempted to convey to the officer that he would comply with the officer\u2019s orders. However, the officer went ahead and used his weapon on the victim, killing him with 2 shots to the head along with various shots to the body (one interpretation<\/a> is that the shots to the eye and forehead were the final shots, received as the victim was falling down after taking the body shots). <\/p>\n 3.) By comparison, those friendly to the police, including many conservative commentators, say that the victim was acting aggressively and irrationally, as evidenced by the store robbery video taken 15 minutes before the incident. Officer Wilson was doing his duty; he stopped to order Brown and his companion to not walk in the middle of the street, as to avoid an incident with a moving vehicle. The officer pulled away from the scene, but then stopped his vehicle and backed up to where the young men were because, in the moment after leaving, he became aware via radio of a recent nearby robbery by two young African American men. It was thus legitimate for the officer to stop and question the men, given that report. <\/p>\n The victim allegedly then attacked the officer as he attempted to get out of his vehicle, evidenced by the reports of the officer sustaining facial injuries<\/a>. The officer then attempted to pull his gun; the victim may have attempted to physically interfere with the officer\u2019s drawing of the gun, and in the struggle the officer may have discharged an initial shot that did not hit anyone. The victim then decided to run away, but after retreating some distance he stopped and turned to face the officer, who by then had his weapon pointed at the victim, ordering him to desist. Then the victim started running towards the officer in a threatening fashion.<\/p>\n The record for a 40 yard dash is about 4.3 seconds; lets say that Brown was around 20 yards away from Officer Wilson (one estimate is 35 feet), and not being a professional sprinter, could cover 20 yards in about 6 seconds. The officer arguably could not have retreated to the safety of his vehicle during this interval; human recognition time is perhaps \u00bc second, but it takes the rest of that second to decide how to respond, then another half second or so to get one\u2019s muscles in motion. So the officer arguably would have had about 4.5 seconds to get back in his vehicle, close and lock the doors and roll up the windows as to achieve safety. That would arguably be cutting it close. Wilson conceivably could have ran away, but perhaps we don\u2019t want our police officers running from threatening situations; that would convey a bad message, promoting disrespect from potential bad guys in the future. <\/p>\n Thus, per what I believe to be legitimate social policy regarding the maintenance of police control and dominance in threatening situations, Officer Wilson stood and fought what purportedly was an intentional threat from Brown, i.e. to run into Wilson and tackle him, NFL style. The officer decided to use deadly force from his gun in response to this threat.<\/p>\n That’s the police \/ conservative interpretation, as I read it.<\/p>\n 4.) Because there was no camera on the police vehicle, the community can never know for sure which interpretation is correct. There allegedly are witnesses; the victim\u2019s companion (Dorian Johnson) has already presented his interpretation, favoring the aggressive cop scenario. Supposedly there are other eyewitness reports supporting both the aggressive victim and aggressive cop viewpoint. Given the heat of passion triggered by such an incident, it will be near impossible to satisfy everyone. If only a video with corresponding audio were available. That MIGHT have resolved this incident before it boiled over into violent protests and ongoing confrontations with the police, or at least could have minimized them. <\/p>\n 5.) Even if the police narrative is entirely correct, one needs to ask if gunfire was needed to stop Michael Brown’s alleged “bum rush”. Really now, in the high tech era of 2014, is the good old lead-slinging gun still the only option when a police officer is physically threatened? Aren\u2019t there other ways of stopping an aggressor who is not otherwise using a gun or similar deadly weapon? <\/p>\n 6.) On reflection, perhaps there there does not exist a good option for what might have happened to Officer Wilson in Ferguson . . a hand-held taser may not be effective against a large person attempting to tackle a smaller person . . . rubber bullets might not stop a large body in motion at close proximity . . . ditto for mace . . . and perhaps not every police officer could reasonably be expected to ju-jitsu a 290 pound teenager running at him. Still, questions remains regarding police training and police tactical policy in such situations. <\/p>\n If an attacking party does not brandish a deadly weapon, does the defending officer need to shoot to kill? Officer Wilson obviously applied a \u201cshoot until he completely stops\u201d tactic. That may be fully justifiable if the attacking party has a weapon or is an immediate life threat to someone else (e.g. a hostage situation or sexual assault). However, if the situation involves a strong-arm, close-range assault by a lone individual, could police possibly use a lower-level shooting tactic, i.e. attempt to hit non-lethal areas of the body core (as Wilson did with 4 of his 6 shots), then retreat and reassess before fully incapacitating the attacker?<\/p>\n I\u2019m not a cop, and I don\u2019t know what it would be like to be in the situation Officer Wilson allegedly faced. Actually, I\u2019m not a cop for good reason \u2013 I\u2019m sure that I would panic. I would either freeze or use irrational judgement and apply too much deadly force, no matter what color a 290 pound attacker might be. I might shoot first, think later. We train and pay cops to keep on thinking, no matter how bad the circumstances.<\/p>\n 7.) With that caveat, I believe that it is legitimate for me, as a member of the public, to question what tactical policies are used by the police in such situations. Assuming that the situation justifies use of a gun, i.e. that no less dangerous options reasonably exist, should threatened police officers always respond with maximum discharge, without regard for the life of the attacker, without balancing the overall circumstances? I.e., even if a physically small, old white guy like me started trotting (quite irrationally) towards a police officer after he told me to stop, would the officer would be justified in firing shots until I was completely on the ground, even though that level of firepower may well kill me? <\/p>\n Perhaps this needs to be discussed, once cooler heads prevail. Was Officer Wilson using accepted and widely agreed-to police tactical policy in the [admittedly harrowing] situation that he allegedly faced on Canfield Drive? If no, then there is a problem with Officer Wilson and with the Ferguson Police. Steps then must be taken to enforce whatever the better tactical policy is. <\/p>\n 8.) If what Officer Wilson did turns out to have been in keeping with accepted police tactical guidelines (thus relieving him of any criminal or administrative sanction for what happened on August 9), then perhaps those guidelines need to be publicly reconsidered for future purposes. Admittedly, we are asking a lot from our police; we require them to develop and use almost super-human, computer-like mental abilities so as to make cool and complex snap judgements in terrible situations like this. Being a policeman or woman is definitely NOT for everyone (certainly it was not for me, given my tendency to panic too quickly). <\/p>\n 9.) Perhaps we also need to turn to neuroscience and the burgeoning field of brain-mind research as to help our local governments to better identify people who CAN stay cool long enough in terrible situations, and then train them to make the best possible judgements quickly in situations when serious public threats and lethal force are in play. Perhaps all the things we now are learning about how the brain and mind work can help to better train our police to fully develop and constantly maintain such abilities.<\/p>\n I know that technology and police policy discussions are not the answer to the underlying conflicts being faced in Ferguson. But still, it seems to me that a better understanding of police tactics and the expanded use of certain technology (mandatory use of video \/ audio recording systems in all police vehicles, direct use of neuroscientific research and field studies to better select and train police officers) could help to promote public understanding, reduce the confusion that has helped to inflame the Ferguson situation over the past 2 weeks, and minimize the use of deadly force while achieving public protection. <\/p>\n But I also realize that better technology and reformed police tactics can\u2019t change the underlying bias and prejudicial attitudes \/ stereotypes within our country that increasingly box the poor into their unfortunate circumstances (including negative attitudes within the law enforcement sector). This is what our nation needs to \u201chave a conversation\u201d about, as Kareem Abdul Jabbar implies. This is where the notion of \u201creparations\u201d gains credibility within the context of social morality. But sorry, TaNesi Coates, no reparation check for you<\/a>, as you seem to be doing just fine writing articles about racial reparations for The Atlantic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m going to weigh in with some comments on the Ferguson, MO situation and the difficult national issues that it touches upon. Before I offer my own thoughts, I would like to summarize a few articles by a few pundits who I feel offered some very cogent observations about the tragic events that have transpired […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8,29],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4401"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4401"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4439,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4401\/revisions\/4439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}