Ferguson Decision Sets a New Wave of Fury

Ferguson Decision Sets a New Wave of Fury

Meg Power, Management

Did Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson shoot innocent, 18-year-old Mike Brown dead? Or, did the “unruly” 6’4”, 292 lbs teenager charge himself at the officer even after asked to stop?

The questions above compose a minute portion of the long and lengthy list the grand jury presented in court in the ruling of Mike Brown vs. Darren Wilson. The St. Louis County jury, composed of nine whites and three blacks, made the decision to not indict Officer Wilson after sitting through 70 hours of testimony from 60 witnesses and three different medical examiners. Word of the decision spurred a new wave of anger amongst the crowd of hundreds waiting anxiously outside the Ferguson Police Department.

With hearing both versions of the story, jurors tried their best to make the most holistic decision as the public voiced their frustration and grew more and more impatient. Each of the supposed eyewitnesses’ stories differed drastically and made their accounts less . Some stated Mike Brown beat the officer and attempted to yank away Wilson’s drawn firearm while others claimed he peacefully surrendered with his hands frozen above his head, his voice repeating “I don’t have a gun. Stop shooting.” Later, it was even found that some eyewitnesses were nowhere near the crime scene and had completely falsified their stories.

After a long and heated deliberation, jurors decided to not indict Darren Wilson, the St. Louis officer who fatally shot Mike Brown. The response from the public was overwhelming and shook not only the nation but the entire world. Months prior to the ruling, right after Brown’s death, unrest sparked in the residential streets of St. Louis and a national debate incited by the protestors over the long, extensive history of extreme police brutality against black youth, according to the New York Times.

Through social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc., both Darren Wilson and Mike Brown’s story reached the screens of millions as many wanted to dig deeper into the case before coming to their own conclusion. With the trending hashtags “BLACK LIVES MATTER” and “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot,” people voiced their support of the Brown family or of Darren Wilson. Some very provocative, pro-Wilson tweeters even lost their jobs, as passionate Brown supporters reported their degrading tweets to their places of work.

This wildfire-like spread of information ignited riots in places scattered around the world. From every ethnic background, gender, and religion, people utilized their right to free speech and peaceful protesting and took to the streets. The ages of the protestors ranged drastically from young elementary school students to senior citizens.

Parts of central London came to an absolute standstill as protesters passionately marched their way through busy streets bearing balled fists and signs with the aforementioned trending hashtags scrawled on. Oakland, California had hundreds of peaceful marchers protest on the freeways and caused hours of slug-paced traffic. Areas around New York City like Times Square and Union Square were swarming with hordes of angry citizens,many supporting Mike Brown, very few supporting Darren Wilson. Chicago religious leaders lead over several peaceful protests through Chicago neighborhoods, stopping traffic as they marched.

These protests show no sign of stopping anytime soon or in the near future. Problems with controlling certain destructive crowds in America and on law-enforcement tactics with the black community was addressed by Attorney General Eric Holder.

The Huffington Post reported President Barack Obama placed Holder in charge of easing tensions between the American protesters, minority communities, and police force that the events of Ferguson have exposed. In the second of his regional forums, Holder announced that he would be releasing a new set of guidelines to limit racial profiling by federal law enforcement. Ironically, the Attorney General revealed the plan at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia where the 1960s civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached about the same exact issues less than 100 years ago.

Coming in the wake of all the unrest, Eric Holder is dedicating himself to make sure this new guidance will pertain to all levels of law enforcement. Civil rights advocates are applauding the US’ decision to finally expand the guidelines of the federal government.

Demonstrator Taliba Obuya, 31, from Atlanta said, “the point we’re trying to get across is that Ferguson is everywhere” according to the Huffington Post. And Holder wholeheartedly agrees.

“This whole emphasis on this issue was born of a tragedy but it presents this nation with an opportunity. It’s incumbent on all of us to seize that opportunity,” Eric Holder concluded.