For the most part, I have stayed silent on social media regarding my opinion on what is going on in Ferguson. I have liked some comments here and there and read different articles, but I haven't actually said anything. And you may not care what I have to say; in the grand-scheme of things my opinion doesn't really matter. But I like to think that I sort of represent the young adult Christian conservative group.
Now I have voiced my opinion in group settings. I've talked about this situation with family and friends. I've seen the news and read the articles. I like to know what's going on.
Things are bad in Ferguson. I don't ever recall so much response for one incident. I have heard people say that all of this isn't just because of the Brown shooting, it's backlash for years of white on black police brutality.....
Here is my problem with that mentality, the police have a job to protect the community they also need to protect themselves, in order for them to be able to protect the community. When someone, no matter what color their skin is, becomes a risk to an officer or the community it is their job to get involved and make sure that person cannot hurt the officer, or anyone else. So when you live in a predominantly black community, you may have a lot of black citizens get arrested. That's not racism, that's just statistics. I have never seen or heard of any cop simply going up to someone, deciding they don't like them and shooting them to death. If you have and you can prove it to me that the cop was convicted of that crime then I will admit I was wrong. Cops won't even pull their gun out unless they since they are in immediate danger. They aren't going to shoot someone for no reason. This video is just one demonstration of police officers being in a very dangerous situation with a suspect. Warning: it is an actual shooting, may not be suitable for some viewers. The suspect appears to be surrendering and laying his weapon on the ground. What we can't see is the suspect actually has another gun in his pocket and he begins to pull it out. Luckily, the officer behind the suspect is able to see this and yells "GUN" which leads to shots being fired.
I say all that to say, if you aren't literally right there in the middle of a situation, you do not know exactly what happened as it happened. You have to leave it to those involved who are in charge, which just happen to be the police, to do their jobs. When officers do something you like, such as stopping a robbery or arresting a murderer, there is hardly praise from the community, because they are just doing their job. But when cops shoot a suspect, who may have been a robber or attempted to hurt or kill the cops... because he is your son or your neighbor, the family of the suspect and the community calls for some type of action (in this case they riot and loot in their own town) to be taken on the cop; even though he was doing the same job!
If you don't know what happened because you weren't there then you don't get to to decide who was at fault, because you didn't see who did what or how they did it. So my opinion is, the cop made a judgment call, and for now I trust his judgment. The autopsies show that Brown was shot in the top of the head, which the pathologist said could only come about if he was lying down or charging the officer. It has also been reported that the officer had some severe injuries to his head. So whether Michael Brown was armed or not doesn't matter to a cop, because when they are pulling up on a suspect they don't know. He might have charged at that officer and could have pulled a weapon and injured him. They have to be prepared for anything.
In my opinion, there is a lot of ignorance in Ferguson right now. A lot of people are making this a "race" (ethnicity) issue. And there may be some police brutality going on, I know racism is still a very real part of today's society and I know officers aren't perfect and have the ability to make mistakes. But I believe a lot of people are wanting to act a certain way, they want to act "ghetto" and look "ghetto" and police officers who are trained to look for certain things may notice a group of black males that look like they are up to no good and stop and talk to them or something like that. If you don't want that stereotype cast upon yourself, rise above it. Stereotypes are based on truth. If there is a reason we look at black males with crooked hats and their pants at their ankles as up to no good it's usually because those are the ones we see on the news getting arrested for whatever. But it's the same for all ethnicities. Typically, if you look like you are up to no good then you probably are. How often do you see any body in the work place looking anything less than professional- nice, clean clothes, combed hair.... I just think if people were willing to take responsibility for their own actions instead of trying to blame everyone else for their problems (and I mean everyone not just Ferguson, Missouri residents) then this world would be a much better place.
