This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/25/obama-ferguson-prosecutor-politicians-protesters-get-it

The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Obama failed Ferguson. The prosecutor is pathetic. Between the split-screen, the protesters get it Obama failed Ferguson. The prosecutor is pathetic. Between the split-screen, the protesters get it
(about 14 hours later)
There we had Barack Obama, the first black president of the United States, finally admitting on one side of the television that structural racism is real. There we finally had him saying that when it comes to police terrorizing black folks, “communities of color aren’t just making these problems up”. But, in nearly the same breath on Monday night after the grand-jury decision in Ferguson, as the people were taking to the streets in cities across the nation, the president also said he doesn’t believe unequal enforcement of the law is “the norm. I don’t think that’s true for the majority of communities or the vast majority of law enforcement officials.”There we had Barack Obama, the first black president of the United States, finally admitting on one side of the television that structural racism is real. There we finally had him saying that when it comes to police terrorizing black folks, “communities of color aren’t just making these problems up”. But, in nearly the same breath on Monday night after the grand-jury decision in Ferguson, as the people were taking to the streets in cities across the nation, the president also said he doesn’t believe unequal enforcement of the law is “the norm. I don’t think that’s true for the majority of communities or the vast majority of law enforcement officials.”
Surreal split screen: Obama calls for restraint as what looks like tear gas is deployed in #Ferguson pic.twitter.com/97W3YwGeHnSurreal split screen: Obama calls for restraint as what looks like tear gas is deployed in #Ferguson pic.twitter.com/97W3YwGeHn
It wasn’t just surreal, then, to witness Obama’s anti-Trayvon Martin moment at the very same time a split-screen on the other side of the TV showed police launching smoke bombs at protesters in Ferguson. It was heartbreaking. Because if that was reality rising up through the gap on Monday night, the reality is that legal discrimination is the norm – and our law enforcement officials refuse to acknowledge reality.It wasn’t just surreal, then, to witness Obama’s anti-Trayvon Martin moment at the very same time a split-screen on the other side of the TV showed police launching smoke bombs at protesters in Ferguson. It was heartbreaking. Because if that was reality rising up through the gap on Monday night, the reality is that legal discrimination is the norm – and our law enforcement officials refuse to acknowledge reality.
This is the gap in our collective split-screen: The Ferguson cops arrest black citizens three times more often than it does white people, but USA Today recently reported that “1,581 other police departments across the USA arrest black people at rates even more skewed than in Ferguson.” That’s right: the police department that won’t even see officer Darren Wilson stand trial – a cop, mind you, who complained that Michael Brown “looked like a demon” after he’d shot the unarmed black teenager – engages in less racial profiling than 1,581 other American police departments. This is the gap in our collective split-screen: The Ferguson cops arrest black citizens three times more often than they do white people, but USA Today recently reported that “1,581 other police departments across the USA arrest black people at rates even more skewed than in Ferguson.” That’s right: the police department that won’t even see officer Darren Wilson stand trial – a cop, mind you, who complained that Michael Brown “looked like a demon” after he’d shot the unarmed black teenager – engages in less racial profiling than 1,581 other American police departments.
So it was nothing short of a gut punch to see our African American president on the wrong side of the gap between the fantasy of what the law does and the reality that people live. Obama, in that moment, gave credence to the fiction that if citizens just faithfully adhere to being “a nation built on the rule of law”, the result will be justice. Perhaps he will finally go to Ferguson tomorrow, but today, we are a nation looking upon a pile of ashes, death and broken dreams.So it was nothing short of a gut punch to see our African American president on the wrong side of the gap between the fantasy of what the law does and the reality that people live. Obama, in that moment, gave credence to the fiction that if citizens just faithfully adhere to being “a nation built on the rule of law”, the result will be justice. Perhaps he will finally go to Ferguson tomorrow, but today, we are a nation looking upon a pile of ashes, death and broken dreams.
And here we also had the overzealous, smarmy prosecutor Bob McCulloch telling us on primetime TV that the law allowed Wilson to shoot a kid in the head – and that there would be zero consequences. Obama and McCulloch both occupied this same gap between law and justice, but at least the president acknowledged there is a gap. McCulloch didn’t see the gap at all.And here we also had the overzealous, smarmy prosecutor Bob McCulloch telling us on primetime TV that the law allowed Wilson to shoot a kid in the head – and that there would be zero consequences. Obama and McCulloch both occupied this same gap between law and justice, but at least the president acknowledged there is a gap. McCulloch didn’t see the gap at all.
The prosecutor spoke in a bland manner about making sure things like this don’t happen again, without seeming to think he could actually do anything to deter them from happening again. He certainly didn’t display any feelings of agency as a prosecutor, and he didn’t seem to care that he’d maximized the possibility of police violence by holding his conference after nightfall. And, while deeply concerned about the potential for looting in Ferguson on one side and the “insatiable appetite” of the media and social media that was apparently the “most significant challenge” to the investigation on the other, McCulloch showed no interest in how the legal, economic looting of Ferguson and the irrational, unabated militarization of its local police force are undoubtedly responsible for countless charged interactions between police and citizens.The prosecutor spoke in a bland manner about making sure things like this don’t happen again, without seeming to think he could actually do anything to deter them from happening again. He certainly didn’t display any feelings of agency as a prosecutor, and he didn’t seem to care that he’d maximized the possibility of police violence by holding his conference after nightfall. And, while deeply concerned about the potential for looting in Ferguson on one side and the “insatiable appetite” of the media and social media that was apparently the “most significant challenge” to the investigation on the other, McCulloch showed no interest in how the legal, economic looting of Ferguson and the irrational, unabated militarization of its local police force are undoubtedly responsible for countless charged interactions between police and citizens.
The people who understand this gap were and are the protesters – many very young – who have been on the streets nightly (and overwhelmingly without violence) for more than 100 nights since Michael Brown was killed. Monday night was just one night in what is a movement that cannot be contained, no matter what the (white) talking heads of the split-screen say. Today, while Ferguson and a nation full of organized protest cope with the smoldering embers, Darren Wilson goes on living his life as a newlywed groom, free to shop his story to networks without a trace of apology. Today, Michael Brown remains dead, but at least the protesters understand the gap between justice and the law, between reality and our political insanity. They know not to simply listen to words from a black president in Washington or a white prosecutor down the street. They know to take to the streets, because it’s not enough to shout in the margins anymore.The people who understand this gap were and are the protesters – many very young – who have been on the streets nightly (and overwhelmingly without violence) for more than 100 nights since Michael Brown was killed. Monday night was just one night in what is a movement that cannot be contained, no matter what the (white) talking heads of the split-screen say. Today, while Ferguson and a nation full of organized protest cope with the smoldering embers, Darren Wilson goes on living his life as a newlywed groom, free to shop his story to networks without a trace of apology. Today, Michael Brown remains dead, but at least the protesters understand the gap between justice and the law, between reality and our political insanity. They know not to simply listen to words from a black president in Washington or a white prosecutor down the street. They know to take to the streets, because it’s not enough to shout in the margins anymore.
The people on the streets know that the status quo cannot stand if justice is to be achieved. Amidst the flames and the teargas, the people on the streets are right – they are somehow even more right than the rule of law, at least when such laws won’t even let Darren Wilson face a trial for shooting an unarmed teen, whether Mike Brown had his hands up or not.The people on the streets know that the status quo cannot stand if justice is to be achieved. Amidst the flames and the teargas, the people on the streets are right – they are somehow even more right than the rule of law, at least when such laws won’t even let Darren Wilson face a trial for shooting an unarmed teen, whether Mike Brown had his hands up or not.
Future protests have another gap to expand: when McCulloch blames social media, and Obama dismisses news coverage of “negative reaction[s]” simply making “for good TV”, there is a root injustice there. The flames of Monday night’s unrest were manufactured, but not by media. They were stoked for hours, by McCulloch, who riled up the crowds needlessly until night fell; they were fueled for days, by Missouri governor Jay Nixon, who whipped up hysteria with his pre-emptive “state of emergency” and his calling-in of the National Guard. The flames were fanned for hundreds of years, by the white supremacy and structural racism that have wreaked economic, physical, psychological and spiritual violence upon black Americans for centuries.Future protests have another gap to expand: when McCulloch blames social media, and Obama dismisses news coverage of “negative reaction[s]” simply making “for good TV”, there is a root injustice there. The flames of Monday night’s unrest were manufactured, but not by media. They were stoked for hours, by McCulloch, who riled up the crowds needlessly until night fell; they were fueled for days, by Missouri governor Jay Nixon, who whipped up hysteria with his pre-emptive “state of emergency” and his calling-in of the National Guard. The flames were fanned for hundreds of years, by the white supremacy and structural racism that have wreaked economic, physical, psychological and spiritual violence upon black Americans for centuries.
It wasn’t the media that caused this history, despite Obama’s claim that to deny “progress I think is to deny America’s capacity for change”. Watching television and Twitter on Monday night – and today, and tomorrow, and 100 more days after that – reveals that media, especially social media, reflects the reality of the racial violence of these United States more than any politician in a box ever can anymore. Meanwhile, US laws haven’t just failed to catch up with what media sees: They have created the violent nightmare we are living.It wasn’t the media that caused this history, despite Obama’s claim that to deny “progress I think is to deny America’s capacity for change”. Watching television and Twitter on Monday night – and today, and tomorrow, and 100 more days after that – reveals that media, especially social media, reflects the reality of the racial violence of these United States more than any politician in a box ever can anymore. Meanwhile, US laws haven’t just failed to catch up with what media sees: They have created the violent nightmare we are living.