Tag Archives: Michael Brown

August 7, 2015 · 12:11 pm

The Necessity of the Everything Cop

Does it surprise anyone that around the anniversary of Mike Brown’s death, we get an interview with ex-Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson; his first since the controversial shooting of the unarmed young man.  I read it and came away with mixed feelings.

It bears witness to the complexity of things when you try to pigeonhole human behavior into neat and nice brackets, highlighted by racial, cultural or age differences.  Things are truly not always black and white; there exists a whole lot of gray out there. Continue reading →

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November 23, 2014 · 3:01 pm

A week’s worth of underused participles and adjectives

Today is Sunday November 23rd, 2014.  It’s the beginning of the week, a new week and all last week we were waiting for the grand jury decision on whether or not Officer Darren Wilson would be indicted for the shooting death of Michael Brown. Last night, the evening news reported that we were waiting for the decision.

Maybe it’s me but I think that after Tuesday or Wednesday, it would have been suitable, appropriate even, to start using the past participle, been in their descriptions.  After all, we’ve been waiting for the decision now for more than a full week.  What bright spot jumped the gun in the first place?

It’s no big deal really, we do want them to get it right; so prolonged deliberation is a good thing, isn’t it?  On the other hand, it’s been said that when it takes this long to make a decision, somebody’s going to get screwed.  Continue reading →

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October 2, 2014 · 1:56 am

A Black Man’s Burden

When I first thought of this, I was going to call it, My Birthday Gift from Don Lemon because it came to me during the very first media coverage of the Michael Brown shooting; Don Lemon was providing coverage on what had occurred, what possibly could’ve led up to it.  You know the drill.

As reports of the first night of rioting reached the airwaves, the anchor urged the citizens of Ferguson to remain calm.  And then, he said something that both took me aback yet made me very happy.  He said that while he didn’t condone the violence, he understood how people could feel as they do.  And while I can’t quote him, he went on to speak of the country- wide marginalization of African-American men that’s been going on for quite a while.

It surprised me because it came at a time when the civil rights of such men seem to take a back seat to illegal immigration, gay rights, the upward mobility of all women and other social agendas.  I thought it was a welcome and long overdue comment. Continue reading →

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August 21, 2014 · 12:27 am

The streets, no place for dreams, no room for heart

The placard read, “Heart of the Streets”.

I’d seen it before, standing in the record shop window, possibly a notice of a rapper’s upcoming CD, maybe something “indie”.   I thought it an ironic turn of a phrase, especially in light of all that’s been happening lately and because truthfully, the streets have no heart and if you’re hanging out on them, thinking that they’re going to afford you a ready conduit to success or happiness well, you’ll not only find out with the quickness that they have no love for you but also that they’ll kill you if you don’t recognize their lethality and act accordingly.  That means get the hell off of them. Continue reading →

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August 18, 2014 · 6:57 pm

Lack of empowerment drives rage, education channels it

As much as I’m critical of some young African-American male’s behavior in the wake of the Michael Brown killing, I understand where the violence comes from.

There was a time when a young man coming of age actually meant that something good was going to happen. It was a time of unfulfilled and expectant joy in his life.   It meant that before him was a period of wide open promise where the world was his oyster and the pearl, although maybe not that obvious was nevertheless there somewhere for his picking.

But for black or brown men today, such joy is hard to imagine. They look around their communities and they see almost nowhere where there is an example of African-American empowerment. They don’t see many examples of black businesses or the upward mobility associated with a successful home-grown commerce culture that they feel they’ll be able to assimilate into and profit from. Continue reading →

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