Ferguson: Can't This Just Be A Tragedy?

In thinking about the Ferguson grand jury decision, and the associated protests and counter-protests in response to it, I keep coming back to that statement.

Can't this just be a tragedy?

Why is Michael Brown only a bright, college-bound student that is just another statistic in the racist justice system?  Conversely, why is he only a thieving thug who got what he deserved for charging an officer?

Why is Darren Wilson only an honest cop being hung out to dry just for doing his job?  Conversely, why is he nothing but a racist, trigger-happy cop being protected by said racist justice system?

Why can't it be both.  Or neither?

Can't this just be a tragedy?

Can we not mourn the loss of a young man's life in an avoidable situation without automatically assuming he was solely at fault for it?

Can we not wrap our minds around the possibility that a seemingly "routine" situation got out of hand very quickly?

Why are the only options one or the other?  The angelic teenager vs the racist cop, or the thug gang-banger vs the righteous civil servant?

I believe racial profiling exists.  I believe it's poor policing when the police force does not reflect the ethnic makeup of the populace it is meant to serve and protect.  I believe Michael Brown did not deserve to be shot to death.

I also believe the police officer felt he was in danger.  Whether it was actually true is a discussion was assessed by the grand jury, and has been debated all over the country.  Twisted and morphed into a narrative two polar opposites are trying desperately to push.

It is irrelevant to the case that Michael Brown robbed a store before being shot.  He should have been arrested, charged, tried and then convicted or acquitted by a court of law.  But if he's a thug, his death is no loss to society, then.  There need not be an examination of an American citizen's right to due process.

If now-former Officer Wilson is an inept, racist, ammo-sexualized policeman tasked with patrolling a nearly all-black neighbourhood, pulling his gun at the slightest perception of disrespect, it's a penalty-kick proof-positive that blacks are not to be protected, but to be protected from.  No in-depth examination of the confrontation is required.  We've all heard the story before.  Michael Brown is another Trayvon Martin.  Another unarmed black man killed by The Man.

Both sides will dig in their heels on their narrative.  Any flexibility or understanding is weakness, a betrayal of both your group and your principles.  Dialogue is hard to come by, and so closure is impossible.  The gulf deepens and widens.

With the election of Barack Obama, it seems there has been an increase in racially-motivated politics.  White people now have evidence that they are no longer top dog staring them in the face every day.  Things that could be swept under the rug before can no longer be ignored.  The world has changed.  Minorities are heard, and their votes are counted.

They don't understand that in longing for the "good ol' days" they are also clinging to a time that really wasn't so great if you were anything but white.  But it was great for them.  Their position at the top was never really challenged.  They don't understand that because they weren't confronted with just how cruel the mighty US of A could be for a person of colour.

Because they never donned white hoods or lynched someone, being called a racist for making an observation that puts a black man in a bad light is very hard to swallow, even hurtful.  They don't hate black people!  But in calling an 18-year old dead man a thug who had it coming, they do themselves no favours.  In dehumanizing someone who has died  solely because the person who pulled the trigger was a police officer, they absolve themselves of their prejudicial ignorance.  They have never seen the police as a force that doesn't protect them, that doesn't serve their safety.  They have never been stopped for looking like they didn't belong in a particular place.  Worse still, they don't know anyone who has, either.

Because they've been told over and over again that they can't possibly understand, that they're a bunch of racists anyway, and that the police officer got off in the end, where's the incentive to understand?  To be called the villain in the first act, to be accused without proof... well, isn't that racist?  These people are rioting.  They're destroying their own neighbourhoods, and people are excusing it!  They sell drugs, they go on welfare, they have guns and say "fuck tha police" with defiant justification.  But they're the victim??  They break the law and because of stuff that happened generations ago, it's OK?  

The part that really intrigues me is the stunning lack of self-awareness when many of these same people dress up in a FoundingFathers™ Halloween costume, walk around in public with guns on their hips, and call for a revolution based on some flimsy notion that President Obama is a tyrant hellbent on implementing a new Muslim-socialist hybrid agenda.  Bemoaning the unidentified loss of "my rights under the Constitution," they are more than happy to excuse the loss of Michael Brown's.  They fancy themselves 

patriots on not "recognizing" Obama as their President, but are arrogantly critical of the black community's "fuck tha police" attitude.  Jeez, you'd think they'd be allies.

A young man is dead when he needn't be.  But the bigger story is the jockeying for moral high ground, using the event as proof that they, and only they, are the oppressed. That's the tragedy.