Columnist

Commentary: A wrong reaction in Ferguson

Facts demonstrate response to shooting was misguided

A firm foundation is a pre-requisite for any building to withstand the stresses of Mother Nature and the general laws of physics.

Without one, a building eventually starts to crack and fall apart. That's why getting the foundation right is one of the most critical pieces of building anything solid.

The description fits a lot of human endeavors. So much damage can be caused when a foundation gives way, and it's at that moment we discover whatever we've built up was never going to last because everything it was built upon, though it looked sturdy for a while, was never strong enough.

It can be an individual. Remember the multimillion-dollar organizations founded upon the charismatic personalities of televangilists Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker. They crumbled quickly after revelations of sex scandals. They had built their proverbial houses not on the Gospel they preached, but on the sand of human frailties.

But it can also be a movement. The "hands up, don't shoot" campaign that grew out of the shooting of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., last year spread quickly as a testament against racially based police brutality. A white officer shot the 18-year-old black man in the midst of an conflict. In the immediate aftermath, many residents made claims that Brown was trying to give himself up when the officer shot him.

"Hands up, don't shoot" became the mantra. Members of Congress made the gesture in the House chambers in protest. Several members of the St. Louis Rams emerged for an NFL contest striking the pose. Arkansas running back Jonathan Williams made the gesture after making a touchdown last season.

Last week, Attorney General Eric Holder announced the Department of Justice's finding of no evidence that would support charging the officer with civil rights violations in the two-minute encounter that led to Brown's death. The evidence demonstrated Brown reached into Officer Darren Wilson's police cruiser and punched the officer. Federal investigators discredited accounts that vilified Wilson because they were inconsistent with DNA and other evidence, including sometimes conflicting statements by the same witnesses. Brown unquestionably grabbed Wilson's gun inside the car and tried to wrestle it away.

Witnesses who initially claimed the "hands up, don't shoot" posture of Brown later told conflicting stories, some of them even recanting because they didn't actually see the shooting. Evidence and corroborated witness accounts show Brown moving toward Wilson as he was shot.

Any reasonable person in Wilson's situation would use whatever force is possible to protect himself, and Wilson had a concurrent duty to protect the public. The "hands up, don't shoot" mantra and the outrage at Brown's shooting had no basis in fact, only emotion. The foundation crumbled.

So what are we left with? Let's not use this outcome to whitewash what has been happening in Ferguson. The Department of Justice indeed found significant evidence that Ferguson law enforcement was driven by city leaders who wanted revenue from municipal citations. The agency found hugely disproportionate enforcement against black residents. There is no question the department and the city has problems in its treatment of, and respect for, black people.

Those injustices need addressing, and doing so is the good that can come of this. City leaders in Ferguson deserve their residents' indignation.

But all that angry chatter in the days and weeks after the shooting was misdirected. Michael Brown wasn't a poster child for the cause that needs to be address -- the unfair, biased enforcement against members of the community based on race. He was a young man who had committed a crime then assaulted a police officer. His actions led to his death.

Thorough investigations by St. Louis County police and a grand jury's review resulted in a decision of no indictment against Wilson. President Obama's Department of Justice investigated and just last week revealed it would bring no action against Officer Wilson.

One of lasting impacts of this review should be recognition that the rush to judgment was, in a word, wrong.

The mob mentality doesn't generally produce well-reasoned judgment or behaviors that stand the test of time.

If the lesson of Ferguson is anything, it's that facts, not emotion, guide our better reactions. We can see now that the reaction in the wake of Brown's death was, at best, off the mark, and at worst, manipulative of the absence of concrete information.

Those who fomented the dangerous protests should now apologize to the people of Ferguson, black, white and every other race.

Greg Harton is editorial page editor for the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Contact him by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWAGreg.

Commentary on 03/09/2015

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