Ferguson: Prejudice with Prejudice-Hate with Hate
Read Time:2 Minute, 52 Second
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side
It’s time we stop. . .
What did anyone expect? In America the signs say justice but they mean blood. We counter prejudice with prejudice, hate with hate, lies with lies while the truth lies trampled and bleeding.
A detailed, meticulous, scientific and lengthy investigation is a “travesty” and the prosecutor “passed the buck” and “shirked his responsibility” which we are told is to simply indict the cop on hearsay, prejudice and rumor — without due process or examination, to inquire like Pilatus of the mob instead of letting a jury decide on the basis of the evidence. Why a jury after all, of one’s peers when we can have men in masks, costumed dancers in the street, professional heralds of hyperbole, sellers of certainties, posters on blogs and walls and Facebook pages and all those who “just know” out of prejudice, just know that accusations that feel good, fictions that validate our mission are true.
Or so say the people who a short while ago seemed like rational human beings, who considered themselves reasonable: people who go to work in the morning and come home at night, who call themselves informed, able to see things as they are. Last night I watched them, strutting in silly mustache masks, standing in front of the police with hands up saying “don’t shoot.” Kangaroos, holding court on the streets of St Louis. And to those champions of justice, the accused, being white, must be guilty, otherwise we would be as foolish as the people who went through the same performance as they did when Tawana Brawly was not-raped. Accusation and race are evidence enow. Otherwise our doctrines would not be pure!
Who is able to admit, after all this theater and passion and tears, that at heart they are simply self-righteous racists out dancing with long-since made-up minds, with blood lust and hooded faces in the streets at night? With so much invested in protest, who can accept that they’ve been lied to and made fools and have been lying to themselves. Hands up! Don’t shoot!
Michael Brown was not a “child.” Michael Brown, according to black witnesses and all the physical evidence did assault a police officer in his police car and was wounded in the process and ran away. He was shot according to black witnesses while “charging” the officer. He was not shot in the back according to three independent autopsies. He was not on his knees with his hands up or on the ground with the cop standing over him. He was not shot from the car window. The witnesses who testified otherwise recanted or admitted they were either not there or didn’t see what they claimed they saw.
But no, he’ll always be the “child” in scholar’s robes and mortarboard, like a carved and gilded figure with a halo and fist full of cigars in a church representing some ancient martyrdom in wood, and of course we, out there in the cold and dark are fighting for justice. We will make a symbol of raised hands, we will bind it on our foreheads and hang it from our necks. We will chant hands up as we go into battle and as we persecute the heretics and burn the witches — and in this sign we shall burn and plunder the innocent. In hoc signo vinces…In this sign we shall conquer.
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You are exactly right, both in the article and in your comments. I have to agree with Norm that this is one of the best articles I’ve seen here in a long time, and there are some great articles written almost every day. Thanks.
Bugger you’ve got a lot of excellent articles up today. I’ve read this four times and printed it out. The lads at the local will like it.
So much truth it almost hurts. Best article I’ve seen on MMA frankly – with due respect to other great articles.
Extraordinary article. Just extraordinary.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply. My main concern, as I think you agree is that grand juries are there for a purpose, to protect us against being hauled into court because some mob insists or because of some facebook posting when there is no evidence for it. People who know better are insisting we do away with it. Mob rule is not justice.
Of course evidence and belief are only distant cousins and reality is a manufactured product we buy after listening to the advertising. Some are going to see this the way that’s most comfortable and compatible with their beliefs and prejudices and all the more reason for due process.
Some people are chanting “burn it down for Michael Brown” today, and they’re not all African Americans. Why for this case and not for some other legitimate case of police misdeeds which are not in short supply I do not know but I’m sure it’s not spontaneous.
Oops, I was responding to your comment without realizing you we’re the author of the piece–good essay! The protests look a lot more compelling when stepping outside of the specifics of the case and understanding the emotional place and broader contexts from which they stem, but I admit it’s troubling when I reorient to take it literally as a “lynch mob” for Wilson. The argument that justice HAS been served by the grand jury process will fall on deaf ears to those who have witnessed or experienced wrongful convictions (or been compelled to plea bargain for fear of one) on more precarious evidence, and who therefore won’t understand why this case wouldn’t at least go to trial–even if it turns out that in this case justice really has been served. My heart goes out equally to those who have reason to be so jaded by the system, and to the officers who put their lives on the line every day to protect and serve.
Glenn, I’ve thought about what has made this case different. I think the length of time the body was on display, the pictures of the body spreading on social media, and the initial imagery of a retreating kid with his hands up in surrender are what made this case symbolize the broader issues of inequitable policing. Emotionally and symbolically, at this point I don’t think it would matter if we found out that Brown was actually an 8 foot giant with an AK-47–as they say, first impressions count. The initial impressions of the case, layered on top of experiences of police brutality or inequitable treatment and coupled with distrust in the system, have made this a rallying cry. I personally think the grand jury got it right in this case, now that I’ve heard more about the evidence presented to them, and my heart goes out to Wilson and other officers affected by the scrutiny of this one case, but I nonetheless get the place of anger, hurt, and distrust driving the protests, and frankly I find it inspiring to see people taking to the streets. I have immense respect for law enforcement, but the war on drugs, racial profiling, and other systemic and legal issues have seriously f*cked our nation’s racial landscape: All these years, what was missing was a “rallying point” as compelling as the image (true or false, but to the extent that perception is reality, believable to many) of a boy fallen in the street, gunned down for no reason when he had his hands up in surrender.
The denialism is so intense, it’s almost as though this incident was needed for some purpose. Doubly odd because there have been any number of obvious police “mistakes” involving the shooting of innocents.
I don’t really understand why this one was picked to make a global catastrophe except for the “child” angle. In this and the Trayvon Martin shooting much effort was expended in framing it the victim as a “child” The ubiquitous voice of Sharpton, the day after admitting that the Stand Your Ground laws had nothing to do with the case, went on the air to proclaim that SYG meant “open season on black children”
The black man shot after being stopped for not wearing a seat belt? The black man shot in his mother’s driveway, getting a pack of cigarettes from his car? These and others passed by with short mention — but this?
I can only see some hidden hand behind this last attempt at splitting the country, steering the passions of African Americans into some deep and hungry pocket.
Burn it down for Michael Brown? Insane and especially when you’re burning down your own house.
Today they’re concentrating on the prosecutor. So called experts with law degrees questioning everything he did and said in a last ditch attempt to invalidate the verdict. If that weren’t enough idiots on social media are claiming secret links between Darren Wilson and the KKK. It embarrasses and disgusts me, and it’s not a black and white issue completely because there’s enough dumb going around to satisfy every color in the racial spectrum. Fighting for justice. Right. In hoc signo vinces….
Oh my:
“But no, he’ll always be the “child” in scholar’s robes and mortarboard, like a carved and gilded figure with a halo and fist full of cigars in a church representing some ancient martyrdom in wood, and of course we, out there in the cold and dark are fighting for justice.”
I think you have left me without speech Mr. Geist. Thank you so much for this unique perspective. I will likely not forget it any time soon.