Michael Brown's Death - Another Tragedy

Another tragedy is an understatement I'm sure. It is one more instance of racial conflict to shake us out of our naivety or perhaps a comfort level believing that things like race and justice are really getting better. Haven't we come so far? The treatment of gays, women, people with disabilities, people of color, minorities in general - aren't we doing better? Of course on some level we are and we shouldn't lose site of those facts and stories. The reality is though, that the death of Michael Brown should bring us back to some harsh reality.

There is a lot to learn from his death and the events in Ferguson, Mo. The numbers relative to race tell a good bit of the story. Whites have left the city (St. Louis in this case but many others) for the suburbs and then the suburbs for new developments and the countryside. Blacks have followed suit also looking for better lives and lifestyles. But in many places, power remains with the new minority of whites. In Ferguson, blacks make up about 70% of the population while whites are at about 30%. Yet the mayor, police chief and five of six City Council members are white. This happens in so many communities. It's partly due to the mobility of people and their housing options and that people haven't established their own political roots in many cases. Of course there are lots of other reasons and politics and politicians are in that mix. it also turns out that only 3 of the 53 police officers in Ferguson are black. So racial imbalance is pretty evident. But what else?

Something strange is occurring in this country's policing modality. It's the militerization of the police. Look at the pictures of the police response in Ferguson. You will see photos of police in not just riot gear but camouflaged riot gear. What's this all about? They're certainly not in the woods. They're not supposed to be hunting or on a military mission. Then there are military vehicles, sand colored or black, used in cities across the country.  Some of this is related to all of the federal dollars and programs that fund our police agencies. The question is, how comfortable should any of us as citizens be with a milaterized police force? What's the mind set of the leaders and members of these forces. More and more it looks like a mind set of us vs them or the police vs the citizenry.

Relative to the incident itself one has to begin wondering about what kind of training and curriculum police agencies use relative to confrontations, arrests and deadly force. We hear it's extensive but we see chokeholds and shootings that seem to make little sense. Is the training failing or is the recruitment and supervision flawed? Plenty of room for both I'm sure.

I catch myself talking about 'young black men'. It's not the correct terminology. These are youngsters. Michael Brown was 18 years old, getting ready to go off to college in a few days. Young blacks, male and female, face challenges that I'll never know. Trained from their youth not to run with anything in their hand, to always have identification, to not argue with police and on and on. Michael Brown may have forgotten some of these things which may have resulted in his shooting. Michael Brown's death is a tragedy and there have been and will be others. In Ferguson and NYC and so many other places across the country, parties need to come together and talk about what has happened and how things can be prevented in the future. Leaders need to not just promote a calm approach but also refrain from overreacting to or blaming the violence that has resulted from any of these incidents. In a country where it has become acceptable to insult and mock a president based on his race or where armed militia believe they can and should stop refugees from crossing a border, there is a lot of work to do and a real need for leadership. We have to find and support those leaders wherever they're needed.