Michael Brown's Shooting
If you haven't heard about what is going on in Ferguson, you've probably been living under a rock. Just in case, here is some additional information you might not have known. The issue here is discrimination. On August ninth Michael Brown was shot and killed in an alleyway in Ferguson Missouri, he was unarmed and black. The police officer was Darren Wilson, he was on the police force for about three years, and he was white. After the shooting there were riots in the streets of Ferguson because people wanted justice. Police showed up waving their guns around and eventually calmed people down.
Grand Jury Hearing
During the hearing Darren Wilson said he "feared for his life" after Michael Brown had hit him, subsequently he drew his gun shooting and killing Michael Brown. Wilson was not indicted for killing Brown because the grand jury did not meet the required nine out of twenty six jurors who had to agree to indict Wilson. This is because of "probable cause" meaning that the evidence presented was not enough to convince the jury that Wilson should be indicted.
Ferguson Riots Again, But Why?
After the decision of the grand jury more riots broke out in Ferguson shops and cars were burned in the streets eventually the Governor of Missouri called in 2200 troops from the National Guard to stop the violence. People in Ferguson have said things like "I feel sad for the business owners, It's really sad it had to come from this. We just wanted justice. If we'd have had justice, none of this would have happened." said Tracy Ballard, but how is destroying your community going to bring about justice? If the people of Ferguson would have simply protested peacefully, and tried to get Darren Wilson indicted again (which could still happen) then maybe there would be justice, the jury could still find probable cause. Unfortunately, the way people reacted was not to ask or to cry out to their country for justice, but to try to stop violence with more violence. In all of human history never has fighting violence with violence come without a heavy price, now they have broken their community even more. They've left the idea of being good citizens, who want positive change in their community to the wind and alienated themselves more from what they want, justice. Because state officials are not going to listen to them now, not after this, and the justice they wanted, could very well, be the cost for their actions.