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| Hannah Wilson Class of 2017 |
According to CNN.com, despite the insatiable appetite of the media surroundi
ng this story, the grand jury is the only collective of individuals that knows the “whole story.” Thousands of opinions on the matter of indicting Officer Wilson have emerged as new evidence has been brought to the surface. Out of this plethora of (sometimes contradictory) information has sprung a point of obstruction between those who see Wilson as the exemplification of white power in America, and those who see Brown as a bitter teen who posed a very real threat to another human being.
ng this story, the grand jury is the only collective of individuals that knows the “whole story.” Thousands of opinions on the matter of indicting Officer Wilson have emerged as new evidence has been brought to the surface. Out of this plethora of (sometimes contradictory) information has sprung a point of obstruction between those who see Wilson as the exemplification of white power in America, and those who see Brown as a bitter teen who posed a very real threat to another human being.
But what this case really comes down to is not how many shots Wilson fired. It does not boil down to whether or not Brown was armed and dangerous. We cannot reduce the fatal altercation to a bad part of town, a suspect in a robbery, or an Officer who claims to have never used his gun while on duty. What this case represents is the systematic subjugation of African Americans in our society, perpetuated by a police force that too often resembles a terrorist organization. Food for thought: US citizens killed overseas as a result of terrorism totals 16 as of the end of the year 2013. Those in power closest to us are those who are doing us the most harm.
African Americans are incarcerated at a rate nearly 6 times that of whites, constituting nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated people in this country. African Americans make up 58% of youth admitted to state prisons, 44% of youth who are detained, and 26% of juvenile arrests. From 2010 to 2012 alone, out of 1,217 deadly police shootings (keeping in mind the FBI’s tendency to not file many of these shootings at all), black males ages 15-19 were killed at a rate of 31.17 per million. Contrast that with 1.47 per million whites in that same age range dying at the hands of police, and a racial disparity in the justice system becomes more and more apparent.
And let’s speak for a moment about Darren Wilson. It has been debated whether or not authorized use of deadly force was necessary in this case. Most, however, do not understand the implications of such authorization. In 1989, Graham vs. Connor expanded the definition of authorization use of deadly force to include “objective reasonableness” when an officer is faced with potentially threatening conditions. In most cases, a force continuum is utilized to provide officers with guidelines of how much force to use against a resisting subject in a certain situation. Deadly force was not likely Wilson’s only option.
On a larger scale, there is a growing disparity between activists and non-activists. White America has made it a point to create a distinct “us” and “them,” with activists even creating and perpetuating the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. Part of the solution to this problem of race has to be the inclusion of blacks into the definition of what it means to be an American. Lives matter. Michael Brown’s life mattered. Darren Wilson’s life matters. Whether or not you believe it, we are all affected by the tyrannical rule of an organization more dangerous than the police force: the federal government. Bill O’Reilly, Fox News talk show host and face of staunch American conservatism, said in a recent interview with Jon Stewart concerning white privilege, ““That was then, this is now! Maybe you haven’t figured out that there is no more slavery, no more Jim Crow, and the most powerful man in the world is a black American, and the most powerful woman in the world, Oprah Winfrey, is black.” Clearly, there is a misunderstanding of how knowledge and power operate in our system of government. Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey are exceptions to the norm, which perpetuates the fallacy that an individual can pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Heads up, Bill O’Reilly – if you don’t have bootstraps, you can’t pull yourself up by them. And a police force that racially profiles and murders in large numbers young African Americans is not working toward the root of the problem, but rather fueling the idea that black lives are not as important as those of whites.
Before you post your next status advocating for the ALS ice bucket challenge or paying homage to the lives of recently deceased actors Robin Williams and Joan Rivers, think about what happened in Ferguson. Turn your anger into activism, and stand in solidarity with those who are brutally murdered by the biggest terrorist threat in our nation: those donning suits and uniforms.
Hannah Wilson is a sophomore McConnell Scholar studying philosophy and political science. She is from Bradfordsville, Ky.