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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/13/ferguson-war-zone-mike-brown-missouri
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| Ferguson is not a war zone. We need to talk about more than just Mike Brown | Ferguson is not a war zone. We need to talk about more than just Mike Brown |
| (1 day later) | |
| A neighborhood just north of my home – Ferguson, Missouri – has been under siege by its own police force. Maybe it’s hard to imagine what that means if you’re not here ... but it’s actually harder to come to grips with if you are. | A neighborhood just north of my home – Ferguson, Missouri – has been under siege by its own police force. Maybe it’s hard to imagine what that means if you’re not here ... but it’s actually harder to come to grips with if you are. |
| The unrest, the vandalism and the looting that you’ve heard about from local, national and international newspeople? That happened to businesses that are part of the Ferguson community. The show of force that you saw on the news the other night? That all went down in neighborhoods where many of my friends work and live. Since Sunday, the afternoons and evenings of the mostly-black residents of Ferguson have been filled with protests and vigils in response to 18-year-old Michael Brown’s death at the hands of a police officer on Saturday, and they’ve endured long nights filled with shouting police and riot gear, with wooden bullets and teargas – and, early Wednesday morning, with a second man shot by a cop. | The unrest, the vandalism and the looting that you’ve heard about from local, national and international newspeople? That happened to businesses that are part of the Ferguson community. The show of force that you saw on the news the other night? That all went down in neighborhoods where many of my friends work and live. Since Sunday, the afternoons and evenings of the mostly-black residents of Ferguson have been filled with protests and vigils in response to 18-year-old Michael Brown’s death at the hands of a police officer on Saturday, and they’ve endured long nights filled with shouting police and riot gear, with wooden bullets and teargas – and, early Wednesday morning, with a second man shot by a cop. |
| People I know faced down police dogs to participate in a peaceful protest outside of the Ferguson police department on Saturday. A friend spent hours trying to help young people get home Monday night after buses stopped running – and she ended up letting several stay overnight for fear that they may be targeted for violence if they remained outside. Major cleanup efforts are scheduled for Wednesday. | People I know faced down police dogs to participate in a peaceful protest outside of the Ferguson police department on Saturday. A friend spent hours trying to help young people get home Monday night after buses stopped running – and she ended up letting several stay overnight for fear that they may be targeted for violence if they remained outside. Major cleanup efforts are scheduled for Wednesday. |
| Open contributions: Help the world hear your police racial profiling story | |
| Ferguson is not a war zone and residents are not enemy combatants – but that’s what it looked like the last few nights. | Ferguson is not a war zone and residents are not enemy combatants – but that’s what it looked like the last few nights. |
| I am not condoning violence or looting, but the anger and frustration being voiced by people in Ferguson comes from a very real place. At least one witness account of Brown’s killing – that the police approached him and demanded that he stop walking in the street – raises grave concerns in a community where there are valid concerns about racial profiling by a mostly white police force. In a city where two-thirds of the residents are black, only three of Ferguson’s 53 police officers are black. Black drivers accounted for more than 86% of traffic stops in 2013, and 92% of traffic stops that ended in arrest involved black drivers. That was the social climate when Ferguson residents were confronted by police officers Monday night, officers who were brandishing weapons and handling police dogs, some of whom shouted at residents to go home. Some residents responded by saying, simply: I am home. | I am not condoning violence or looting, but the anger and frustration being voiced by people in Ferguson comes from a very real place. At least one witness account of Brown’s killing – that the police approached him and demanded that he stop walking in the street – raises grave concerns in a community where there are valid concerns about racial profiling by a mostly white police force. In a city where two-thirds of the residents are black, only three of Ferguson’s 53 police officers are black. Black drivers accounted for more than 86% of traffic stops in 2013, and 92% of traffic stops that ended in arrest involved black drivers. That was the social climate when Ferguson residents were confronted by police officers Monday night, officers who were brandishing weapons and handling police dogs, some of whom shouted at residents to go home. Some residents responded by saying, simply: I am home. |
| Ferguson might not be our home, either, but it borders my city and is part of our regional community. So my sister and I attended a mass community meeting organized by the St Louis County NAACP near Ferguson on Monday night, at which over 1,000 people showed up. They came from all over the region, and there were so many people that they overflowed into the parking lot. | Ferguson might not be our home, either, but it borders my city and is part of our regional community. So my sister and I attended a mass community meeting organized by the St Louis County NAACP near Ferguson on Monday night, at which over 1,000 people showed up. They came from all over the region, and there were so many people that they overflowed into the parking lot. |
| When it became apparent that the crowd was not going to be allowed into the building and people seemed to be getting restless, a young woman worked her way to the front of the crowd. She raised her voice and reminded the frustrated crowd that we all showed up because we want to address the violence and oppression that fueled that past four days of unrest. The crowd of over 200 people then formed a circle, held hands and we recited the Lord’s Prayer. | When it became apparent that the crowd was not going to be allowed into the building and people seemed to be getting restless, a young woman worked her way to the front of the crowd. She raised her voice and reminded the frustrated crowd that we all showed up because we want to address the violence and oppression that fueled that past four days of unrest. The crowd of over 200 people then formed a circle, held hands and we recited the Lord’s Prayer. |
| By the time the mass meeting ended, thousands of people in Ferguson were already huddled in their homes, and platoons of police officers marched down tree-lined streets pointing weapons into backyards. | By the time the mass meeting ended, thousands of people in Ferguson were already huddled in their homes, and platoons of police officers marched down tree-lined streets pointing weapons into backyards. |
| Some people at Monday’s mass meeting called for a forum to open up a community dialogue. The optimist in me hopes that happens, but for any dialogue to have an impact it will need to have diverse participation. We can’t move forward if the only people talking about change are black people and liberal allies. Fruitful dialogue will involve diverse participation from the St Louis region, including members of law enforcement, the faith community, educators, healthcare providers and residents. We need to start talking about the larger issues fueling racial tension – we need to talk about more than just Mike Brown. | Some people at Monday’s mass meeting called for a forum to open up a community dialogue. The optimist in me hopes that happens, but for any dialogue to have an impact it will need to have diverse participation. We can’t move forward if the only people talking about change are black people and liberal allies. Fruitful dialogue will involve diverse participation from the St Louis region, including members of law enforcement, the faith community, educators, healthcare providers and residents. We need to start talking about the larger issues fueling racial tension – we need to talk about more than just Mike Brown. |
| The tragic events of the past few days could be the beginning of something. Our communities are not war zones. Residents and business owners in Ferguson have been subjected to unimaginable oppression, but we need to build a path toward reconciliation. | The tragic events of the past few days could be the beginning of something. Our communities are not war zones. Residents and business owners in Ferguson have been subjected to unimaginable oppression, but we need to build a path toward reconciliation. |
| We need to celebrate the life of an 18-year-old Michael Brown, but then we need to move forward in peace. | We need to celebrate the life of an 18-year-old Michael Brown, but then we need to move forward in peace. |