We in the United States have a history of demonstrations, disorder, and even violence. The media typically portrays these as caused by criminals with attitudes or behaviors that reach a tipping point, and violence just happens. But these episodes don’t really happen as unpredictably or randomly as they might seem. After episodes of violence erupt in the streets, we may hear a little talk about the racial or socio-economic factors that led up the explosion. But for those of us who are part of groups historically without political clout, these indicators can be virtually invisible.
My family and I visited friends in St. Louis County in the 1970’s, and I applied for a teaching job in a suburb that was very segregated. The school board was almost all white. Most of the teaching staff and police officers were also caucasian and lived outside the segregated African-American community. Racial profiling affected community members on a daily basis.
This situation has been simmering for a long time. Currently, the rarity of groups working together across racial and economic lines for everyone’s good is like what I witnessed over 40 years ago. Recent reports from Ferguson indicate that the mayor is white, along with five of the six city council members. Reportedly, only three of the 53 Ferguson police officers are black.
Voter turnout in black areas historically has been extremely low, a strong indicator of long term disenfranchisement. Perhaps one alternative to violence would be helping people feel that they have a legitimate voice in political decision-making. Unfortunately, as voter registration booths have recently started springing up in Ferguson, a strong backlash from those in power has begun. In an interview with Breitbart News, Missouri Republican National Committee executive director Matt Wills expressed outrage about the reports of voter registration in Ferguson. “If that’s not fanning the political flames, I don’t know what is,” Wills said, “I think it’s not only disgusting but completely inappropriate.”
Many of us here agree that our government has become less and less trustworthy. But where our politicians and some citizens go wrong is in turning against the basic American principle of how to change our government: by the ballot, instead of by the bullet. It’s written in our constitution, and has been, until recently, practiced with unique tenacity by the Government of the People of the United States of America. That is changing. All across our country, an increasing number of citizens are collecting arms—not for hunting, but because they are preparing to fight government leaders and police. On the other side, Homeland Security legislation has been giving police units across the nation battle gear and military training easily applicable to killing civilians: military-grade body armor, mine-resistant trucks, silencers and automatic rifles.
Fortunately, in Big Horn County, we have a recent history that can potentially counter the problems evidenced in Ferguson. Redistricting, just last year, updated with our new demographics, makes our county a nationwide leader in one-citizen-one-vote power. So our political leadership reflects our demographics racially and economically.
Fortunately, police and Big Horn County citizens have resisted killing each other in recent years. But we need to be sensitive to the events that led up to the recent violence in Ferguson. We need to be vigilant in preserving our right to speak our grievances to those in power. We also need to be aware of how rates of violence against American civilians are reported (or under-reported). Misleading information makes it easier to cover up potential military style missions against U.S. citizens. It also encourages peaceful gatherings to become co-opted by violent groups who hate our government and police.
In the words of a young reporter from Ferguson, “Two hours before curfew, I was photographing at the front of a peaceful march of all generations, calling for justice and peace in Ferguson. It was controlled and respectful. …Without provocation, armored cars rolled up on us. …They methodically backed everyone down a mile-long stretch of road that has been an understood safe space of protest with flash grenades, teargas, armored cars, and shooting rubber bullets and blocks of wood at the protestors in very tight proximity. I have never had 50 guns trained at me before, running with camera gear, hands in the air. The inexcusable and irrational level of violence is terrifying.”
Would any of this be happening if Ferguson leaders imitated the respect for citizen participation in government that exists in Big Horn County? Let’s continue to keep our guns under control, and channel our rage at government by using voting rights confirmed in our history and constitution as a far better way. At the same time, let’s keep working toward non-violent empowerment in decision making for the good of all us citizens.
The following links are not including in the BHCNews edition:
http://sojo.net/blogs/2014/08/25/ferguson-nation-islam-members-push-peace
The public information, detailed by county, on procurement via Homeland Security of military weaponry by police units across the nation: https://github.com/TheUpshot/Military-Surplus-Gear
http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/story/22379045/dealing-with-the-threat-of-sovereign-citizens
THE shooting of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African-American, by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, is a reminder that civilians—innocent or guilty—are far more likely to be shot by police in America than in any other rich country. In 2012, according to data compiled by the FBI, 410 Americans were “justifiably” killed by police—409 with guns. That figure may well be an underestimate. Not only is it limited to the number of people who were shot while committing a crime, but also, amazingly, reporting the data is voluntary.
Thank God we’re not Ferguson. But let’s pay attention, and continue educating ourselves to the signs on the straight road that would help us avoid the dead ends of Ferguson not only here, but in the entire nation as well.
Lessons from Ferguson
By Jim Hightower
http://www.nationofchange.org/ferguson-exposes-creeping-militarization-police-forces-1408595301
Big Horn County redistricting 2013 and 1986
http://bighorncountynews.com/archive/2013/week%2019/story2.html
http://truth-out.org/news/item/25698-understanding-the-ferguson-riots-as-a-symptom-of-violence
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jul/09/unspeakable-things-laurie-penny-review
http://time.com/3132635/ferguson-coming-race-war-class-warfare/
http://time.com/3150053/ferguson-civil-rights-movement/
http://time.com/3147482/ferguson-47-arrests-violence-easing/
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141540/erica-chenoweth-and-maria-j-stephan/drop-your-weapons
http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/08/19/dispatches-ferguson-police-failure-communicate
It can even be hard to comply with orders to disperse. Audio of protests on August 10 has police ordering a crowd to disperse, and within seconds one hears teargas being fired at them. State Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal told me that when she – along with about 150 protesters – tried to comply with an order to retreat that night, they ended up trapped in a dead-end street, with police firing teargas at them. Whenever they tried to leave, police told them to “go the other way,” but there was nowhere to go.
Photographer Chris Renteria told me when he tried to comply with an order to disperse on the night of Sunday, August 17, he ended up trapped on an embankment with about 15 other people, where they were penned in by three police armored vehicles. “I would never have put myself in that position,” he said. “As soon as the order was given to disperse, I started backing up.” But events moved too quickly for him, and he got hit by teargas.
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in-with-chris-hayes/watch/clergy-contradict-ferguson-police-319337539809
Eyewitness: 'The Police Force in Ferguson Is Lying, and I Am Bearing Witness' (PHOTOS)
Editor's Note: Violence, anger, and confusion continues in Ferguson, Mo. Former Sojourners intern and current Digital and Creative Director for PICO Heather Wilson is reporting from the scene and shared her eyewitness account with Sojourners and others late Sunday night. We share it here as an important perspective in the ongoing unrest and confusion. Please keep the safety and wellbeing of all people in Ferguson in your prayers.
http://sojo.net/blogs/2014/08/14/when-terror-wears-badge
More Americans have lost their lives at the hands of police since 9/11 than in acts officially classified as terrorism. A recent study showed that one black man was killed every 28 hours by police, security guards, or self-appointed vigilantes in 2012. The militarization of police departments nationwide and the over-policing of urban neighborhoods have had terrorizing effects on the black population. There are also programs like stop-and-frisk that make racial profiling and over-policing legal. At its peak in 2011, 685,724 people were stopped. Of those stopped 53 percent were black, 34 percent were Latino, and 9 percent were white. Eighty-eight percent of all people stopped were innocent.Gang injunctions are another method of enforcement that lead to racial profiling and the over-criminalization of youth
http://sojo.net/magazine/2014/08/national-shame
A National Shame
by Ruby Sales, Susan Smith | August 2014
Police killing of black people is not a black problem. It is an American problem
N AUGUST 1965, when I (Ruby) was 17, I was arrested as part of demonstrations in Lowndes County, Ala., in the Southern freedom movement. After being released from jail in Hayneville, Ala., I walked with three other protesters to buy a soda at the Cash Grocery Store down the street. A volunteer “special deputy sheriff” named Tom Coleman stood at the steps of the store, holding a shotgun. When he aimed it at me, Jonathan Daniels, an Episcopal seminarian from Keene, N.H., pushed me aside and took the shotgun blast intended for me.
Daniels’ murderer—a man trying to kill an unarmed teenage girl—was acquitted by an all-white jury. Even the Alabama attorney general at the time described the verdict as the “democratic process going down the drain of irrationality, bigotry, and improper law enforcement.”
On that awful day almost 50 years ago, I was a teenager, black, and female in a segregated society that perceived me as disposable waste. Today, I have the faith, power, and connections to move the mountain of racial hatred that drives the same state-sanctioned murder that killed Jonathan and many other people during the long and bloody history of segregation.
The good news is that we are all valued children of God. Our question for today is, “What does it mean to be church in the 21st century when too many of our black brothers and sisters are still seen as disposable waste?” This question inspires a different conversation about what it means to build a beloved community while advancing democracy. When we interrogate these issues, we change the way we talk and act in the world.
http://campaigns.dailykos.com/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=1024
Sign and send the petition to the Justice Department, and call Eric Holder today. Tell him to pursue an end to police violence nationwide.
David Graber
Hardin, MT
