Ferguson: Race and Violence
The Incident Michael Brown was an 18-year-old black man who was killed by the police. He was a big guy: 6 feet 4 inches tall and almost 300 pounds. Based on video surveillance, it appears that he robbed a convenience store on the day of his death, stealing cigarillos and pushing the store clerk. Afterward, he was walking down the middle of the street with his friend, when a cop showed up. The cop told him to get out of the street, and he refused. The cop then decided to detain him either because of his attitude or because he was a suspect in the robbery. A fight ensued. It seems that Michael Brown began to flee, then turned back, and was shot 6 times, one wound being fatal. That is my understanding of the incident. For the purposes of this essay, the details are not that important, as long as we know what did not happen: the cop did not see a young black man and decide to shoot him for no particular reason. Michael Brown died because of his own bad decisions. He decided to ...