When it comes to Ferguson, you can’t deny the facts.
And one thing which will always remain a fact about Ferguson:
…is that it was the name of Clarissa’s little brother.
Bad joke. Epic gif.
Because that’s exactly what I wanna do to the hashtag for this case by now. I didn’t watch the court case on this thing because I didn’t feel like sharing a genuine “whodabadguy” opinion on it. It’s not that I don’t care about the fact that racism and crooked cops exist. They most certainly do. But my gripe’s that that both may have zero to do with this case and sharing that fact with people who’ve been thinking it did all along (even with evidence in hand) makes them extremely uncomfortable. When facts get presented that don’t align with our beliefs, we get something like a mental nausea. And we shoot the messenger if we don’t have the self-awareness to step outside of our reaction and decide whether the new, logical evidence is something to believe or not.
So, I usually don’t get involved – until I read a piece a friend’s written on it.
(Like I did today.)
I’m not the cop. I don’t know his intentions. And I wasn’t there. This isn’t an episode of Clarissa that I can rewind and point out forensic evidence that Sam, the B&E boyfriend (who comes into your room on a ladder whenever he feels like it?) was a stoner. But there’s something close going on with this footage screen capped image I’ve lifted from my buddy Rich (the friend referenced a few lines ago). It shows Mr. Brown’s altercation with a store attendant prior to him stealing some miniature cigars (the kind people use to make their weed taste like fruit.).
He posted a thoughtful and thorough piece on this case you can read here.
For now, I can’t say I agree or disagree with my friend yet. I haven’t kept up with the whole thing enough and I’m not well versed on the trial. But that’s kinda my whole point today. Unlike many, he has been watching the details and thus fulfills the only requirement I have for me giving your long Facebook shares opining on stuff like Ferguson the time of day: know everything presented before you spam my feed. That’s all. I’ll read anything if you give me evidence. I’ll don specs and annotate your article on how all women should be eradicated from the planet with my mind pried open like an oyster if you do some research first and support your point with Cliffs Notes of proof. Luckily, femme-icide isn’t a stance my friend here has. But what he does want to issue a healthy dose of death gas to – is ignorance. And indeed I see why. ‘cause there’s lot of ignorance happening in the posts of my feed.
One friend wondered how Mr. Brown’s past had anything to do with him deserving to be shot.
To answer this without employing the article of speech known as “duh”, I have to go through the filter of info given by a media I don’t entirely trust and common knowledge analogies. But, I’ll try my hardest:
Let’s dismiss “deserve” first – because nobody’s saying that. More like “inviting the possibility with his behavior”. If I reach for my sister’s pitt bull’s bone, I know he’ll bite me in an act of defense. Solitare (that’s his name) may carry on with a full attack because I’ve become a threat. My behavior will have led to my own injury. Do I deserve it? No. But I knew the odds. So I don’t do that. Something similar happens if you grab a cop’s gun. Another thing I try to avoid, generally. The difference? I can’t potentially shoot Solitaire with his own bone.
As for his history – you know how it is when someone interviews you? And they’re trying to decide if you’re trustworthy? So they ask if you’ve had felonies and then make you do drug tests? That’s because people who do drugs don’t always act rationally and people who break the law sometimes tend to do it again in the future. The idea with the presented evidence is that the officer’s history includes no murders before Mr. Brown. Mr. Brown, contrarily, has a history (part of which is recorded, so I’m allowed to use it here) of being violent – for example, the way he prized those cigars from that clerk. How far is the leap from cigars and clerks to firearms and cops? Especially if drugs are involved?
All this “I’m not sayin’; I’m just sayin’” post is meant to encourage is two things:
1.) A little bit more open-minded thinking when reading.
2.) Fact-checking before sharing.
You can do what you like on Facebook (obviously). But I encourage you, for any story like Ferguson that you fervently sound off on, to fact check. Especially before regurgitating information that may or may not be true. Because, in a way, we’re all kinda like news anchors when we hop online and post. Much the way you could post that an asteroid’s gonna hit earth tomorrow (and someone would share it), someone can post fictional info on a national case – and everyone first believes it and then sets off a domino effect of the same via sharing it. Especially if it already partially aligns with their beliefs.
We’d almost do better to spread the apocalyptic meme. At least it’s not ideological.
(Unless you think it was sent by Saint Jesus, maybe).
The point is, yes: Racism is alive and well here in America. And so is legal system corruption. So, I was also right there, ready to loot and shoot and believe some injustice had happened, too. Because that’s there in our case history equivalent to convenience store Swisher lifting. Racism and corruption. So, yeah – I internally jumped to that conclusion as a first thought, too. But the second thought I had to have afterward, was “let’s look at the rest of the picture, Ashley”. And that doesn’t just include a literal picture grabbed from a security video – but apparently also close-range GSW on the kid’s hand (like you’d see someone trying to grab your gun from you get). Also, there appear to be reports contradicting the ones that say Brown waved the white flag of surrender by throwing his hands in the air – that that never happened at all.
As I said, I wasn’t there, so I can’t explain it all like Clarissa. But I prefer to keep an open mind if I have to listen to these cases that get reprocessed into biased media outlets and lies gone viral about racism and authority. Because there are very definitely very bad officers out there – and there are very good officers out there. So it’d really suck if we’re crying Klu-Klux-Cop about one who falls into the latter category – if he was just doing his job and defending himself as a kid grabbed for his gun.
Note, I say “if”. This isn’t soft language.
It’s me conceding my ignorance on a controversial incident I didn’t witness for myself.
That said, I’ll keep reading.
I suggest (judging by most posts I’ve seen) at least nine tenths of you do the same.