Riot and wrong

Lawful people realize a riot is never the right answer; it's especially atrocious if it was sparked for reasons that wind up being wrong.

We don't yet know all the facts in the Ferguson, Mo., shooting of Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson.

Looters with a "seize the moment" mentality, however, saw no reason to wait for factual information.

If it turns out that NFL linebacker-sized Michael Brown did in fact rob a store and manhandle the clerk, fracture Officer Wilson's face with a heavyweight punch and then "bum-rush" the policeman after tauntingly saying, "you won't shoot me," honest protesters wouldn't have had any cause to protest.

Law and order shouldn't break down when law enforcement encounters a criminal, and the criminal unfortunately not only resists authority, but assaults it.

That's a prescription for peril, regardless of race.

Lamentably, noted black commentators have been as impatient about waiting for facts before drawing conclusions as Ferguson looters.

Syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts likened the riots to "a scream of inchoate rage," writing that they aren't the result of the fatal shooting of Brown, but rather a "bitter sense of siege" by black males who feel that "it is perpetually open season on us."

Actor/director Spike Lee said he thought Brown was another casualty in the "war on the black male" in this country.

What is happening in Ferguson is that truth is taking a back seat to opportunism--which is the word I would associate most with riots.

We all saw TV footage of rioters in Ferguson hauling tires and other loot, and they weren't screaming in rage over any "open season" on them. They were declaring open season on their neighborhood stores.

Pitts listed a half-dozen or so instances over the past 23 years of black males on the receiving end of law enforcement violence as proof of police bias.

If that's the "open season" standard, it's amazing we don't have riots every time a convenience-store clerk is shot.

There's no need to reach back two decades in memory for supporting evidence of a "sense of siege" among those manning lonely quick-store shifts--two weeks back is plenty.

Last Friday, a pair of men wearing hoodies shot a Hot Stop store clerk and two women in Salinas, Calif. One woman died; she was shot multiple times while on the ground. Another is in critical condition.

On August 7, a male robber in a hoodie was caught on security video walking into a Hanover, Md., gas station and shooting and killing clerk Rajinder Kumar. The gunman reportedly stepped over Kumar's body to empty the cash register.

Going back 23 years would undoubtedly paint a picture of not only open season but maxed limits on retail workers at grocery/gas/liquor stores. Convenience stores for years led all civilian venues in workplace homicides, and are still second only to taxicabs.

Inexplicably, had an unarmed Michael Brown been gunned down by a robber while working behind the counter at a convenience store, there'd be no national outrage, no media storm, no protests, no riots--only local vigils like those for the indisputably innocent victims in Hanover and Salinas and a thousand other places.

Explaining that disconnect is no easy task.

It defies logic that black intra-racial homicides claim thousands of victims and yet fail to attract the attention and inspire the indignant rhetoric of national black spokesmen and mass media who rushed to outspoken judgment in Ferguson.

It can't be that the lives of black teens not killed by cops, but by other blacks (often other teens) aren't as important.

What it tragically appears to be is that those victims' deaths further no political cause. When there's no racial component to be exploited, the race-hustlers and their PR machines pay little attention.

It's not news that there's a general mistrust of police among minorities, including blacks. But even a cursory review of fallen officers indicates that police often have reason to be apprehensive in crime-ridden minority neighborhoods.

The Officer Down Memorial Page reports 27 law enforcement officers killed so far this year by gunfire--four in July. In three of those cases the shooting suspect is a black male, and in two instances the police were ambushed before they even exited their patrol cars.

On July 13, in Jersey City, N.J., a robber at a 24-hour drug store lay in wait for officers to arrive, and then shot Detective Melvin Santiago multiple times as he pulled up. Other officers returned fire, killing the suspect.

A week earlier, a suspect in a domestic-disturbance complaint shot Gary, Ind., Patrolman Jeffrey Westerfield as he sat in his car at the scene.

The day before that, Indianapolis Officer Perry Renn was killed responding to a "shots fired" call when he encountered a man with an assault rifle in an alley. His partner shot and wounded the suspect.

Restoring respect among minorities for police should be a social priority. But narrow, one-sided arguments full of sensational half-truths and flat-out wrongs don't help. They incite racial discord.

Real progress will require balanced discussions that acknowledge uncomfortable realities.

But that assumes progress is the goal.

------------v------------

Dana Kelley is a freelance writer from Jonesboro.

Editorial on 08/22/2014

Upcoming Events