AYAN GULED

Michael Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, grieves her son’s death.

I would like to give my condolences to the Brown family. With all the unrest going on in Ferguson, Mo. they are the ones who are truly suffering. The life of 18-year-old Michael Brown has come to an abrupt end and nothing can be done to bring him back to his family. While riots take place in Ferguson and claims of racism and police misconduct ensue, the Browns are just trying to find out what happened to their loved one.

Brown’s death seems to have occurred for no reason. However, this leads me to question how much race may have been a factor in his death. There are huge injustices to deal with that the people of Ferguson are currently facing.

Let’s start with what we know: Brown was with a friend and walking down the middle of the street when officer Darren Wilson approached them in his police cruiser. It’s presumed that Wilson was telling the boys to move to the sidewalk, which is a reasonable request.

Now here is where it gets complicated. Many differing witness accounts claim that Brown and Wilson got into a disagreement while Wilson was still in his car. After the struggle, it is said that a few shots were heard coming from the car. Brown and his friend took off running and Wilson began pursuit. So far, none of this seems like a racial incident given what we know. The only questionable aspect is the gunshots, but there is no way to know why they were fired since Wilson claims his gun misfired during the disagreement.

Witnesses say that Wilson fired shots at the boys as they were running away and that Brown’s body jerked — it appeared he was struck. Now it starts to get hairy: Brown either turned around with his hands in the air and apparently took a step towards Wilson — who continued to shoot — or he collapsed forward due to having been shot from behind.

In no way do I believe that all police officers are racist and trigger-happy mongrels nor do I believe that every person shot or arrested by police is innocent. I admire the police for constantly putting their lives at risk to protect citizens. It’s a tough job and can put a lot of stress and pressure on anyone especially in this day and age.

That being said, the recruitment and training methods should be put under more care and screening. It seems that there are more and more instances lately where an officer shoots someone — with a high incidence involving visible minorities — without probable reason and then gets away with it. The excuse commonly used is that the victim appeared too dangerous and was concealing a weapon, which is later found to not be true.

In regards to Brown, he had no weapon and was running away when he was shot from behind. Correct me if I’m wrong, but since when is it okay to shoot an unarmed teen?

I’m going to have to pull the race card and say that officers — and people in general — are quicker to judge and attack whenever a black, male teenager is involved, as opposed to when the person in question is a white. Although this is not always the case, it happens more often than not.

Ferguson is currently a militarized zone where citizens — predominantly black — and police officers — predominantly white — are at war. Yes, it’s a race war. Yes, the people feel misrepresented with a lack of their peers being in the police force. What was meant to be a peaceful protest against the discrimination that citizens have been facing has turned into America’s worst battle of the decade. The police are using military grade equipment on innocent and harmless people seeking justice. Am I the only one who thinks that giving people who seem power hungry and trigger-happy even more powerful weapons is a terrible idea?

To make matters worse, the police force has claimed that Wilson may have presumed Brown to be a suspect from a robbery that had occurred that same day. Brown was shot two times in the back and six times in the front. Being unarmed and having no criminal record were not enough to protect Brown from the police pinning him as a robbery suspect.

It’s sad, but this is the reality of the times. This isn’t the first time police brutality has occurred and it most likely will not be the last. It was first publicized with Rodney King in 1991, then in 1999 with the death of Amadou Diallo and again in 2006 with the death of Sean Bell.

I hope the Brown family gets the answers they need and that the death of young Michael Brown will be an eye opener for the injustice that people in Ferguson are facing. Rest in peace Mike.

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Photo: Youth Radio/flickr