Reflections on Ferguson After 7 Months

On August 9th last year Officer Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown and ended his life.  The fall out from this event has been tremendous.  Riots, looting, protesting (some peaceful and some not), police officers being killed or wounded, political figures have taken advantage of photo ops with their hands up, #blacklivesmatter, #bluelivesmatter, and the list goes on and on and on...

Have we learned anything?  I wish we had!  I fear we have not.

There are some things we should have learned:

• Don't rush to judgment.  

Many people thought the racism was obvious, a white cop shoots a young black man who was surrendering with his hands up.  A grand jury didn't indite after seeing the relevant evidence and everyone went crazy because it was so obvious.  Recently the Eric Holder led justice department found that Officer Darren Wilson could not be prosecuted because there wasn't enough evidence.  A closer reading of the report will reveal that there isn't ANY reliable evidence to suggest that the shooting was not justified or that race played any significant role in the incident.  His hands were not up and he was not surrendering.

• Don't trust the media.

Very few media outlets reported in an unbiased and careful manner.  Almost all of them were beguiled by those who were more interested in profiting from a tragic event than finding the truth.  Like it or not, it was the more conservative media outlets that offered more accurate reporting and a wait and see approach (Fox News, The Blaze, Breitbart, etc.).  Even those outlets jumped to conclusions too early, even if their conclusions were right.

• Inappropriate media coverage can  have severe consequences.

While it is tragic that Michael Brown was shot and killed, he was a victim of his own decisions.  Officer Wilson's life has been turned upside down and, I would assume, his career is over, his family will have to move, etc.  All because of the lack of integrity on the part of the media.

It gets worse, just the other day two police officers were shot while doing their jobs outside the police department.  The officers were across the street from a "peaceful protest".  The details are not out yet, but the shooter has confessed.  

Protests have happened, people have been shot, businesses have been ruined (looting), charlatans have profited, hashtags have been developed, and politicians have had their photo ops, now what?

It is probably safe to assume that no apologies from Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, the various media outlets, the politicians, or anyone else are coming.  Should we just go on with our lives and forget about it?  What about the alleged racism in the Ferguson police department?  

Certainly the statistics the justice department provided in their report about the racism in the Ferguson police department justify everything, right?  Absolutely not.  Let's just assume that the justice department report does prove racism.  That does not justify using Darren Wilson to promote the agenda.  If racism in the department was so rampant and fighting racism is the agenda, it should not be hard to find one, two, or many incidents to promote the agenda...if it is justified.  Instead, the "hands up don't shoot" narrative was built on lies.  The justice departments report was based on traffic stops, arrest rates, and so on.  John Lott and Thomas Sowell have both taken a look at the report and they raise some important questions.  The statistics in the report don't tell the whole story and the conclusion may not be warranted.

This doesn't mean that the Ferguson police department is without blemish.  There were 7 emails between 2008 and 2011 that were racist and disgusting.  It is curious that there were not any emails after 2011, I'm not sure what to make of that.  What happened the last three years?  Furthermore, I would assume there were thousands of emails over that period, I am surprised they only found 7 that were racially objectionable.  Resignations followed the report, but that should not necessarily be taken as a sign of the reports truth.  I would have resigned to avoid the media and political pressure even if I thought the report was fallacious.  

Is there racism?  Yes, but I'm not sure if the Ferguson police department as a whole is guilty of racism.  Darren Wilson wasn't guilty of racism.  Attacking those innocent of racism doesn't make things better, it makes things worse.  Should you need evidence, just take a close and honest look at Ferguson.