Darren Wilson Wasn’t Indicted—the System Was
by Michael Daly 11/25/2014
The St. Louis County prosecutor seemed to blame society more than the cop who shot Michael Brown, but he didn’t address the race and class issues that set the tone of life in Ferguson.
Police Officer Darren Wilson was not indicted on Monday, but society itself was.
“For how many years have we been talking about issues that lead to situations like this?” asked St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch. “I don’t want to be here again.”
He went so far as to say, “If the laws are not working, we need to change them.”
McCulloch said this immediately after announcing to the world that under present Missouri law the grand jury had not found reasonable cause to charge Wilson with a crime in the shooting death of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown.
McCulloch cited specific evidence that led to the decision, noting among other things that Brown’s blood had been found on Wilson’s uniform.
But McCulloch remained vague about the issues that he says we need to address. He has in the past said nothing about a case where Ferguson police officers arrested a man for destruction of property because he bled on their uniforms while they allegedly beat him. One cop who admitted to hitting the man went on to become one of the five whites on the six-member Ferguson City Council.
McCulloch also has not had much to say about the Ferguson Police Department being overwhelmingly white in a city that is 70 percent black. He has not seemed disturbed about blacks in Ferguson being three times as likely as whites to be stopped by the police, twice as likely to be searched when they are, and then twice as likely to be arrested. He has not suggested anything is amiss when Ferguson issues three warrants for every household in a year and residents annually average some $100 per person in fines and court fees.
Years of that set the tone of life in Ferguson when Wilson and Brown encountered each other for 90 tragic seconds in August.
Maybe now McCullough and others in positions of power and influence are ready to address this other body of evidence, along with the larger issues of race and class that extend far beyond Ferguson.
That is certainly the hope of Michael Brown’s father, who was quoted by President Obama after the grand jury’s decision was announced.
much more:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/25/darren-wilson-wasn-t-indicted-the-system-was.html?via=newsletter&source=CSMorning
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