Ferguson
I'm very troubled about this whole Ferguson situation, other than for obvious reasons. I'm worried about what would happen if the officer is acquitted like Zimmerman was. Would people still use this whole situation to talk about racist policing and general racist injustice or would they just act smug and say, "see he was just a thug" and leave it at that? Because if Mike Brown actually did do something that threatened the officer's life, and was somehow still threatening from 35 feet away, and the officer was justified... then ok. But the smear campaign against Brown that has been started by Ferguson PD and County PD is already proving to work into the hands of ignorant people who will hang on to anything that can justify his killing. And I can't help but thinking that that's how this whole thing is going to play out. They are going to smear his character so much that the jury is not going to look at just RELEVANT facts. If you're just patiently waiting to get ALL the (relevant) facts and see how it all plays out before forming any opinions, then fine, I respect that on some level; what I know about the track record of criminal justice and race in this country doesn't allow me to quietly wait, but I understand that not everyone has had the same exposure to the pervasiveness of racism. But if you jump on every opportunity to put down Michael Brown or the Fergusson community and other protesters, without saying anything about how they are/have been victimized, then I am judging you hardcore.
