Why Unrest Persists in Ferguson

The answer to why people are still in the street in Ferguson is simple: An entire week after Ferguson, MO, police officer Darren Wilson fatally shot the unarmed black male teenager Michael Brown who died with his hands up in broad daylight, more questions remain unanswered than answered.

Folks aren’t in the street because they have jumped to unfounded conclusions! The core fact of the unarmed teenager’s death at the hands of the police officer isn’t in dispute. This is not a rush to judgement; it is a demand for swift justice.

Meanwhile authorities–first Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson and now MO Governor Jay Nixon–react to the killing as if the problem is the protests that have risen up in response. Before properly securing the body, Jackson secures the riot support of 15 additional law enforcement departments, even though no one was rioting. After publicly ignoring the killing and the violent policing for half the week, then taking responsibility for protest security from the Ferguson PD and giving it to MO State Troopers led by Captain Ron Johnson, Nixon reacts against protestors again by imposing a curfew on them.

The curfew comes the night after YOUNG BLACK MALE PROTESTORS RALLIED TO PROTECT THE STORES from the handful of opportunists trying to loot.

One of the insights that melissa is so brilliant in bringing forward in this clip is that authorities using their authority against victims–no matter how reasonable the rationale–isn’t justice; it’s further oppression.