Presumption of guilt
by Keith Thomas
Let’s talk about what is taking
place in Ferguson
and other parts of the country. Let’s open up that dialog that activists tell
us we need. My language isn't going to be nearly as erudite others who have
written about what is taking place. I'm a retired factory worker.
There are a lot of ways to approach
solving problems. One way is to start with a question and look for the answer
or answers. Another way is to start with the answer and then look for the right
question.
For many in regards to the young
man, Michael Brown, who was killed in Ferguson,
the answer was that Police Officer Darren Wilson murdered him. That Officer
Wilson is guilty but not charged. To disagree is to be either racist or not
recognize that the system is racist.
In life we take the information
that we're given and decide what we will believe. We do that based upon our
life experience and that includes what we have learned both in and out of the educational
system.
I believe that the preponderance of
evidence supports Officer Wilson's version of what transpired and that justice
was served. Is there conflicting evidence? Obviously there is. That isn't
unusual. We can either cherry-pick the bits and pieces that support our
contention or look at the totality of what is presented.
I also believe that it is sad that
a young man had to die as a consequence of his actions. Others may not be so
inclined. In other words; they may say he got what he had coming to him. Had he simply gotten out of the street and on the
sidewalk he would still be alive. He is neither the perfect victim nor
perpetrator.
But you see, Michael Brown knew
that he had just committed petty theft and roughed up a store clerk. Did he do
that because he was frustrated with systemic racism? He already knew that the
evening was going to end badly for him (that’s called “consciousness of guilt”).
It had nothing to do with racism.
In the riots that followed do all
the arsonists, looters, vandals, etc. also get free passes because they only
committed these acts because they were frustrated with and oppressed by the
system? Has the verdict already been rendered in their regard by the Michael
Brown supporters?
Voir Dire
If I was going to
serve on a jury I would go through a process of voir dire to see if there was
any reason that I should not be seated as a juror. While I'm not a juror or
witness I think that it is important to give a snapshot of my life story. I'm
doing this because we approach society from the lives we've lived and the
experiences we've had. After all I could be just another honky racist or a part
of systemic racism. Some may maintain I'm too ignorant to determine that
racism.
My folks, based
upon their experience, operated with a "presumption of guilt" system
in regards to their precious children being accused of committing some heinous
act against society. They would grudgingly accept that it was possible we could
actually be innocent.
My family started
off poor. We moved to the big city and lived in what my mother called an
"efficiency". It had 3 rooms. We all slept in the same bedroom.
Things got better.
We moved up to a
duplex in a mixed race neighborhood. My family interacted with people of color.
It never occurred to me to think anything about it.
When I got older
and started driving I had a lot of interactions with the police. Some good.
Some bad.
I was out on the
streets driving around late at night sometimes with friends, sometimes alone. I
was pulled over a lot. Out of the car. Lean against the hood. Have you been drinking?
Why are you out so late? I was pulled over by officers of color as well as
white officers. I was pulled over in predominantly white neighborhoods. I was
pulled over in predominantly black neighborhoods. I was pulled over out in the
country.
I was pulled over
out of a either a presumption of guilt (because of my age) or boredom.
I cannot imagine
having the temerity/audacity/stupidity to punch a police officer in the face or
to refuse an order whether I considered it lawful or not. Even then I tried to
use a little common sense that my dad said I was majorly deficient in and
obeyed the guy that had the gun. I did not approach being stopped by the police
as the beginning of a negotiation.
I knew good cops;
I knew bad cops.
I had riot
training in the military. Lots of racism in the military then. I was a "n*gger
lover" to the white racists and an "Uncle Tom n*gger lover" to
the black racists. Even though I have to use that word to describe events I
still apologize for its use because it's an ugly, disparaging word. I had black
guys that wanted to kill me. I had white guys that wanted to kill me.
After getting out
of the Army I was a hippie/freak/longhair for around a decade and got to
interact with the police a lot more.
There was a trip
through the south in the 70s that was an incredible eye-opening experience.
There is a young black bus boy that I am indebted to and I never knew his name.
At the very least he saved me from a possible beating and helped keep my family
from harm. I pray that God was able to bless that boy in life.
Lots of union
activity. More police, both corporate and governmental. Lots more confrontation
both good and bad.
Let’s stop here
and I'll just say I didn't raise my sons to expect justice. I raised them to
expect a lot of law.
We have, thanks to modern
technology, practically instantaneous news. A news crew can be at a scene
within in minutes, interrogating witnesses, digging up histories, plowing
through social media and beaming it all to a world that demands answers in TV
time! The world wants answers by ten, film at eleven, resolution tomorrow, if
not today.
Media vigorously pursues any information
no matter how irrelevant and reports it even when there isn't any. The viewing
audience can fill in the blanks with their own conjecture. Why did the
individual do it? What was their state of mind? What was their history? Did
their moms love them? What does Facebook tell us? They will take somebody's
life completely apart.
The media has an insatiable
appetite that must be fed 24 hours a day in a highly competitive and lucrative
environment. The talking heads and journalists, two very different professions,
want answers now. Their viewership/ratings depend on answers. The first one
with the best answers wins. They don't even have to be the right answers.
Media has created unrealistic
expectations on the part of the viewing public. Media fiction storytelling demonstrates
on a regular basis that crimes and tests can be done within an hour. Does the
forensic evidence support a guilty verdict? The real world is different and
less exact.
In Ferguson witnesses were testifying before news
crews that Officer Wilson was guilty. Out of the public eye there were
witnesses supporting Officer Wilson's version of what transpired. They had
enough sense to keep their observations to themselves until it was time to
testify in secret without fear of retaliation.
People cry out for justice. The
guilty verdict had already been rendered by the supporters of Michael Brown and
anything less or immediate was unacceptable. What do we want? “Justice! When do we want it? Now!” “No
justice! No peace!” It was the perfect narrative for activists who want to keep
their jobs. They poured into Ferguson
from out of state. The protest becomes an end unto itself.
The problem is that we have a
ponderous, unwieldy legal system that is supposed to operate with a presumption
of innocence. The gathering of "information" that comes out at the first
of an investigation can be cut and dried.
At times, though, the initial information comes from a chaotic situation
and can be questionable, contradictory or confusing. Eye witness accounts are
often in conflict with physical evidence or each other. What is known to be
true today can be known to be wrong tomorrow or somewhere in between.
People demand justice from a system
that is about the "rule of law"; a system where "t"s must
be crossed and "i"s must be dotted. Guilt or innocence is a matter of
perspective and paperwork. There is bound to be disappointment. Justice may or
may not be rendered. Justice isn't always included in the "rule of
law" where pocketbooks can make all the difference and being affluent can
make one a victim. Being poor does not provide an advantage in a system that
can grind on for years.
Grand Juries are pointless and
should be abolished. All the Grand Jury could have done is found that there was
enough evidence for a trial to take place. Had a trial taken place Officer Wilson
would have been found not guilty. I know at there are people pointing out
errors of the Grand Jury that don't support Officer Wilson's version of events.
That's okay. There's more than enough that does.
No justice. No peace. Only there
would have been and there will be. People with jobs have to get on with their
lives. Let’s face it, people without jobs have little incentive to keep
chanting, marching and making signs. Their chances of getting arrested and
thrown into a system that they claim is biased against them are increased.
There isn't any future in it. The
protests will go away. There's no money in it for people that have jobs. And
walking around chanting gets boring. There'll be a lot of talk from guys in
suits about transparency, communication, additional training, etc. Whatever the
current buzz words are and then people will get on with their lives.
I don't want to bury this in
numbers so I'm just going to use these statistics that were cited in a
Washington Post article: "It is true that the rate of black
homicide victims and offenders were disproportionately represented compared to
the general population, the 2011 BJS report found. The black victimization rate
(27.8 per 100,000) was six times higher than the white victimization rate (4.5
per 100,000). Black offending rate (34.4 per 100,000) was almost eight times
higher than whites (4.5 per 100,000), according to the report." ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2014/11/25/giulianis-claim-that-93-percent-of-blacks-are-killed-by-other-blacks/ )
The majority of police officers in
the country are white. It shouldn't be surprising that white officers are
accused of most bad acts. It should also follow that they're guilty of
committing most good acts. They operate in a culture dealing with violence. In
2012 there were over 12 million arrests. (Traffic violations are not included.)
12 million. The smallest of small percentage of those are bad.
Finally, how many young kids are
being lost to violence and drugs every day throughout America?
E-V-E-R-Y day. Is a white cop shooting a black kid the main problem this country
faces? Would a young man losing his life to a black cop instead of a white one have
been less important to media, to family, to friends? Because it happens that
white cops will shoot white teenagers as well as people of any color. The main
difference in the majority of questionable incidents is that there isn't
rioting in the streets and neighborhoods aren't burned down afterwards. White
officers are guilty at times just as officers of other colors will be guilty. The
racism groupie Al Sharpton is just one man. He can't be everywhere rendering
verdicts.
Saying the problem in Ferguson is about race is
like announcing the War on Terror or Drugs. Wars that never end. What's more if
it's about race then it pits color against color. That's a lot less complicated.
It's an easier answer to simply say it's racism. It's systemic racism. It just
follows that everything else is about racism as well including the health care
system. Throw in the educational system as well. Oops! I forgot about the entertainment/media
industry. Have you ever seen as many people of color on the streets reporting
the news?
If people don't want it to be about
race or an -ism then approach life solutions as a people. Race is a distraction
from the problem, make that multitude of problems, and keeps them from being
solved. Who does that benefit? That's the question that needs answered. For
sure it benefits those running the country who really don't care who gets
elected. They are far above the problems faced by everyday people.
Seriously, can racism truly be the
root cause of our collective problems or is it deeper than that? How about
ignorance? How about lack of education? How about parental influence? How about
both parents working? How about poverty?
Is there racism? Yes of course there
is. There's misogyny. There's sexism. There is certainly age discrimination
too. This is certainly no country for old people. There's struggling to make
ends meet. There's poverty. There's regular poverty and bone crushing poverty.
There's never get your head up poverty. There's hopeless poverty.
There is plenty of poverty. There's
more than enough to go around. Also, no particular race has cornered the market
on poverty. There is an entire belt of poverty throughout the Appalachias. There
is generational poverty in various geographic locations and blighted urban
areas. Poverty is a common denominator.
I will posit that for too many
people life is something that is happening to them rather than something they
are living to the fullest. There's more to life than just existing; getting
through the day.
We need stop reducing the problems
humanity faces to race and racism. Take the "race" box off of forms.
It compartmentalizes humans. Otherwise people will be forever crunching numbers
to show disparity and drawing lines in the sand simply waiting for the next
incident to latch onto. I believe that if we stop using institutional racism as
an excuse then we can make some progress.
Because at the end of the day six
months from now the majority of people in this country will be living in the
same physical location and in the same circumstances as they are now. The
Talking Heads will have a new cause célèbre occupying the news cycle.