The World Is Watching Us

The world has been looking not at Ferguson, Missouri but at our country.  Twenty Four Hour news cycles do just that.

The thought that a human being irrespective of race, age, gender could be left on the street in the heat of a summer day for hours after being shot by the police is indefensible and irrespective of whether the shooting was warranted or not. In fact it does the opposite as it looks to many that it was to give the local police time to circle the wagons and to get their stories matched.

Even worse was the initial statement made by the Chief a full day later at 10 AM that began with what has been shown to be disconnected with the shooting, I.e. the incident in the convenience store. By this time the chief certainly knew this was smoke-screen and was trying to give a cause and effect that was a non-starter. In the afternoon statement he admitted that that the suspect was indeed stopped for walking in the middle of the street and gave no reason for why he had prefaced his earlier comments as he did. But the harm had been done.

For many people around the world, the image from the over-reaction by the local police was not dissimilar to one a decade-plus ago. Then the world looked in horror as military assault vehicles were brought in to control public demonstrations in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Now they saw similar actions, not in China, but in a country that prides itself as living under a constitution which gives all its people the right to assemble and protest. 

The mere concept of what we saw in Ferguson makes one think (momentarily) that the fears voiced by survivalists in their mountain redoubts might actually have merit.

This morning I listened to a governor of one of the east-coast states who was adamant that weaponry such as what we saw used in a town of 25,000 or even a city should only be maintained by the state police or national guard and its use only authorized by a chain of command: police chief – mayor – governor - state police and if needed, the national guard. That made sense to me.

Even the military does not maintain quick access at bases within the US except when ordered by higher authority. Just ask the OD at your local base if he has the authority to order out body armored troops in APC’s and armored Humvees.

When I saw that 96,000 machine guns had been transferred from the military to local police units I cringed. The number is staggering when you try to figure out where these went and what size village or local community now has these. One has to ask as well what level of training locals receive and more important how they are secured. Scary to think of Barney Fife with a 50 caliber air-cooled on top of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

We have no problem when e.g. the CDC is called in to assist in an outbreak of Flu of Hepatitis as their expertise would far outweigh local healthcare providers. Why then is it not the same for civil protests like this. The answer is it the two scenarios are alike or better put, should be viewed and acted-on in the same manner.

The Justice Department was called in when local justice found everyone innocent of killing or terrorizing civil rights workers.  Calling them in there was the right thing to do. 

Jus as then, the final judgment must be made by a jury of people who must be able to look objectively at all the elements.  The knee-jerk reaction by the authorities in Ferguson foretells that would not be the case. Using State and Federal resources was surely the correct approach.