The Ferguson Incident
My words cannot mean too much, but I feel them so I write them…
A young man lost his life in Ferguson, Missouri some months ago. The young man was black, nearly three-hundred pounds, high with pot and on some sort of personal rampage. He stole some cigarillos in a convenience store, shown on his exit via video tape as he brazenly and roughly shoved aside presumably the proprietor. He then walked defiantly alongside a cohort down the middle of a street.
Another young man, a white policeman tending to a police matter in the neighborhood, received word of the robbery and, after completing his other call, ultimately clashed physically with the young black man, and killed him with bullets fired from his service gun. There was first the angry denial of the young black man at the prospect of being arrested, and a fight ensued at the police cruiser. The young white policeman sustained injuries to his eyes and face. After warning shots to stop the fleeing young black man, the latter charged the policeman and was killed.
It was essentially the grand jury’s decision, after months of interviews, witness versions, sworn statements, audio, video, and forensic analyses, that the young white policeman killed the young black man in self-defense, that he should not be tried in the case. All of the evidence investigated by the Grand Jury is available for the public to view. Of course, all along the painstaking road to a GJ decision there was a media blitz, stirring the cauldron of divisiveness…giving, some believe, the race-spinners time to foment their intended anger and hatred.
One question lingers in my mind: under the same Ferguson circumstances, do any of the sane among us believe for a moment that an angry ‘hopped up’ white thug would be handled differently?
The first acknowledgement should be that a young man is tragically dead. A father and mother grieve for the wayward son, but they plead with the community and all citizens not to interfere with the ongoing investigation, to allow our United States system of justice to play out. If there is disagreement with the final verdict, it is a right to peacefully protest and make the counter-views known, but blind mob behavior, destroying businesses and autos by fire and looting stores are behaviors that must be handled through the criminal justice system. These are after all criminal acts and should be prosecuted. Otherwise, we sanction anarchy and destroy our democracy.
The second acknowledgement should be that there are those who live among us who cannot accept the tenets of a democracy… Here is where my tirade begins…
The United States has a couple of documents which are sacrosanct and inviolable – the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. The first mentioned document gave our country independence from British rule. The second document was meant to be a legal blueprint for a democratic way of life, a binder, if you will, that secures the rights of all individuals and the due process of law.
When someone immigrates to the United States it is expected that the immigrant will learn the precepts of the Constitution, learn our language, adopt the freedoms and liberties accorded by the document without the abandonment of their own previous culture. Because the immigrant supposedly comes to the United States because he/she sees the opportunity for self-growth and achievement, sees the freedom to worship in the religion of their choice, sees the security given the citizens by the rule of law, it is expected that no person or group will convene to betray these underlying principles that our founding fathers set forth and that so many of our brave men and women have fought to preserve.
Sacrosanct documents and reality do not always go together.
There was once slavery in the United States, an economic way of life, a right by landowners to hold slaves to work their fields and, in many ways, to become an integral part of the owner’s family…though it did not always work that way.
That act of slavery was abolished by a brave and wise president named Abraham Lincoln, but not without a great civil war that killed so many young men and ate away so much of the US communal soul.
That was then, back in the eighteen hundreds! So many cannot and will not let that racial divide go. Are some in the present Black population still answering to an aggrieved and self-aggrandized group, a group that consciously looks for any reason to whip up a minority into a band of rioting thugs? I’m talking about the self-righteous leaders of Black Caucuses and Black Politicians who make their handsome incomes by keeping their constituents in a state of bondage, their own selfish bondage.
There have been so many advancements over the years on the racial issue. Yet, there are still those who financially benefit by keeping ‘race’ a factor in so many ways. There are Black leaders who feel that there is ‘white privilege’ and no equality. They rail when the statistics bear out the awful facts that contradict their focused realignment of truth – the broken black home, the black children with one parent, or, no parents at all, the crime rate among blacks.
There are no doubt some justifications for peaceful protests against decisions made under the rule of law. But when common criminals and hoodlums use these peaceful protests for their acts of violence, it should be obvious that their motives are but for selfish gain, very likely whipped up by the aforementioned race-spinners and not out of any grievance for a parent’s dead son. As previously alluded, it is my heart-felt opinion that there are some of the Black leaders, the race-hustlers, who do not put forth the efforts to change these statistics.
Instead of foment, try the truth!
I was born into poverty in Appalachia too many years ago, too many emotions and memories ago, with a broken family, state-run institutions, mobility, ingredients that could have made me a different person than I am today. There were the ‘poor white trash’ comments, the ragged clothes, and the abuse. Oh, there were enough confusion, doubt, mistakes, regret and remorse to fill several farm silos. But, somehow, with a loving mother, some good friends, relatives, a lot of good luck, I made it to and through adulthood, certainly not without mistakes and regrets, had a life of some accomplishments…and still here not quite ready for the trash heap.
The point is, this ‘equality thing’ that is brandished so often? No society will ever put in place a form of government to make everyone equal…and, who wants an ‘Eloi’ anyway? Maybe there is equality at birth, but then the qualifiers come in to play: intelligence, ignorance, low IQ, high IQ, capacity to learn, not learn, willingness to work hard, not work, disabilities – so many factors.
The point is, we can only live with what we have, what we are! We are all human. We need to care for those people who simply cannot make it on their own. We cannot make ‘entitlement’ our rule. We can judiciously make it our exception. We let the cream rise to the top. We let the best and talented among us (the ‘doers’) create our financial growth and jobs…without a lot of phony ‘entitlement’ regulations. We help the poor learn whatever trade in which they can excel so they can become self-sufficient. We help our aged if they truly need the help…shame on us if we do not.
The point is, without apologizing for it, we need a strong government, one that is honestly transparent, trustworthy, and works for us, that protects our borders, keeps us strong with state of the art military, equipment, intelligence, and makes any country think twice before they attempt to test our might…no bully, just being a good ‘boy scout’.
The point is, our country is a democratic republic. If you don’t want to be here, leave! Do not attempt to corrupt our citizens with the hatred you brought with you. If the God you brought with you wants us dead, take him back where you found him. The Gods we serve in our country don’t preach hatred and terror… We are the greatest nation on earth. Like us, live by our laws, or leave us!
The final point is, thugs with bats beating against store windows and robbing small store owners in Ferguson, Missouri because they did not agree with a Grand Jury rendering (or, more likely, using it as an excuse for their criminal acts) just don’t hack it here! You and those who led you hopefully will be found and punished…Do not let ‘Color’ be a disease!
We are all ‘one’.
Billy Ray Chitwood – November 29, 2014
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The Final Curtain 
I don’t think I’ll wade into this one, Billy Ray. I felt that you put forward some legitimate points, but, I suppose, in the end (for whatever reason) there is right and wrong on both sides. (The idea that we are all ‘one’ is a truly wonderful idea, but, unfortunately, we are not ‘there’ yet).
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Guess ‘all one’ is a ‘reality wish’ – we will never be ‘there’…
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Well said, Billy! I’m sure Officer Wilson did not start his shift with the intent to kill someone. This was an unfortunate incident that’s spiraled out of control due to a number of protestors who don’t know how to protest peacefully. There are confrontational, unarmed white men who are shot and killed by officers, we just don’t hear about them in the main stream media…but look elsewhere, it’s happening.
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Thanks, Jill… Good observations.
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I am in the UK so am an outsider looking in but there are a couple of things that do confuse me about this case, I was under the impression that all the cop cars over there were now fitted with dashboard cameras sure that would have backed up the officers story of the attack in the car but no footage has been released. The second thing is that surely given the amount of witness statements that totally contradict each other as well as arguments about what the autopsy etc show surely the most sensible thing to do would have been to go before a jury and make all the evidence public, if there was transparency in the legal proceedings then those looking to cause trouble would not find it so easy to stir up disharmony, as I say I am an outsider looking in it just seems if you lay all your cards on the table no one can accuse you of hiding the aces
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Hi, Paula,
As stated in my ‘post’ there was a ‘three-month long’ Grand Jury hearing on this case where it was determined that the police officer was not at fault in this incident…forensics, audio, video, multiple witness accounts, were seen/heard during this time period. In short, no one seems to be willing to talk about the fact that the victim placed himself in this tragic position. There will always be those who believe ‘Justice’ was not served, but the incident was carefully considered by our rule of law… All of the Grand Jury’s evidence is available for viewing. In my humble opinion, this is one incident of many that happen frequently here and elsewhere in the world. My belief is that justice was done. It is tragic that the young man died but he has to bear the blame as he placed himself in that awful situation. I’m sure you will find opinions aplenty on the internet but keep in mind the political use (and perhaps, gain) so many make of a terrible incident like this… My best wishes to you.
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Ah well the impression given to the rest of the world is that the grand jury hearing was held behind closed doors and no footage of any kid has been reported on the news over here, I think that has a lot to do with the way it looks to those of us overseas, I am sure you can agree if the footage of the police officer being attacked in the car was being shown as frequently as the pictures of the officer standing over the body then public opinion would probably not be as divided as it has been, ultimately only one person knows what was going through his head when he pulled the trigger I know over here the probability is that a taser rather than a gun would have been used.
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Believe as you will… Our ‘race hustlers’ and ‘race baiters’ in the US want you to believe their media-driven messages… The post I’ve written clearly states my reality on this situation. If you sincerely wish to clearly understand all of the dynamics of this particular incident, I suggest you delve deeper into the political aspects of this.
Here is what I know: a young three-hundred pound man with a criminal record, high on marijuana, robbed a store, assaulted its owner, confronted a young police officer trying to do his job, would not allow the young policeman to get out of his car, tried to take his weapon, beat the policeman, and was later shot when further attempts were made to arrest him…
This is not something that happens everyday in our country as you might be led to believe – white policemen do not routinely kill black people. The young black man put himself in the position he was in. Check the statistical data as it relates to white policemen killing blacks. Of the roughly 13% of blacks in our country, less than 1% are killed by white policemen. Most blacks kill blacks. Leaders of Black Caucuses and ‘Black Panther’ groups stir the racial pot in this country, and we don’t talk enough about the root causes of the black crime and poverty: education, one-parent families, having babies out of wedlock, et al. If this incident were reversed (bad white man vs. black policeman) there would have been no media outcry. Race relations in most positive terms in our country have come a long way in fifty years. This incident and others are being politicized and used, likely setting us back years in black/white equality.
There are political positions that go to varying degrees in our country as in yours – Conservative and Liberal. Our media is by and large liberal, so it is likely you across the pond get their take on the news. I’m Conservative, believe in fairness, freedom, liberty, the rule of law, and a private sector not heavily shackled by Big Government. The government is whomever ‘We The People’ elect. Personally, I want Government to provide some infrastructure, protect our shores, help the countries we call our allies, provide for our educational needs, aid those of us who need assistance in our day to day living, tax us as little as possible, and watch very carefully how they spend our money.
I personally have no racial bias – I have good friends who are black… AND, I’ve given you as clearly as I can my views on ‘The Ferguson Incident’.
Wishing you well,
Billy Ray
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