If you pay any attention to news (and by that I mean journalistic accounts of events, not talking head morons on cable "news"), I think it's easily to get sucked into this feeling that the world has really turned into a shitty and scary place. I've found it difficult to spend a lot of time thinking about it, because honestly I don't have the mental bandwidth for it, especially as a father charged with bringing my kid into this world.
In the last few months, I must have started a dozen blog posts trying to organize my thoughts, but every time I've deleted the starts because it just felt like noise. It occurred to me that I can't make anything simple and solid because the issues aren't simple. It's not so much that I don't believe certain things: I believe that racism is most certainly still a problem in the US, that there is an accountability and training problem with a minority portion of police, and that the Internet has enabled a strange mob mentality.
I was listening to the Triangulation podcast with Dr. Drew Pinsky, where he briefly talked about the psychology of mob mentality as it concerns the Internet (watch the whole thing if you can... it's really great). Basically he asserts that when people get angry about something, they stop caring about facts and they want blood. The Internet is particularly good at fostering that behavior, and people find it intoxicating to be a part of that anger in a way that they wouldn't ordinarily get involved because it doesn't require empathy. This phenomenon seems particularly toxic among people who believe there is no wrong doing and no racism in Ferguson. Hold that thought for a moment.
The violence and looting in Ferguson following the different phases of the Michael Brown case was very obviously wrong and doesn't solve any problems. This was in fact mob behavior at its worst, but there are two important things to remember. The first is that those committing violent acts among the protests were a minority. The second is that this behavior did happen in a certain context. There are always opportunists, sure, but people don't riot and protest unless they feel they're at a disadvantage or are in some way being treated unfairly with no recourse or hope. There's a well documented history of racial profiling by police in that town, so regardless of whether or not Brown constituted a real threat to the officer's life, the shooting still represented a breaking point. Even if you can't be empathetic, it's important to understand the context. Disagreement with the action doesn't mean the context isn't there.
So what about the angry mob of mostly white people, and the even more strange association with so-called "conservative" politics that assert there is no problem? I have to admit, I don't understand that at all. Much of that angry mob doesn't even have skin in the game (no pun intended). That mob is so far removed from the situation that I'm surprised they would take any stance at all.
These angry white people can't all be racists, can they? I'm not talking about the usual dipshits who anonymously post hate speech on the Internet, I mean the educated people we all know and probably call friends. Surely they can't all be reverting to the habits of people generations back. I'm not an anthropologist, but I do have some theories. The first is that a lot of people my age and younger may find it difficult to believe that racism is still a thing. I'm not making excuses for anyone, but I believe that's plausible. I think there's a segment of the younger population that believes that we're so above the civil rights era that any allegation of racism is just people looking for an advantage. My other theory is that people just perceive racism as a black and white thing, so if you're black and feel oppressed, white people are the enemy and don't want to be associated with that. It's not rational, but I can kind of see that angle.
But like I said, the context of the fear and uprising is critically important, because without it, you are just left with random criminal action. If Bernard Tyson, the CEO of Kaiser, says he's worried about what happens when he gets pulled over as a black man, then I think maybe we should consider what he has to say. No one is condoning violence, but to brush it all aside and pretend that there is no problem doesn't mean there is no problem.
Which get us to the police problem. The death of Brown was certainly tragic, and the circumstances of him being unarmed causes a great deal of concern. What I find upsetting is that people have become so cavalier about the death of a human being that they can justify it with any argument about following the law. We have due process here, and if Brown was guilty of something, he should have been charged and tried. He'll never get that chance. I wasn't there, but I have a hard time believing that emptying a clip into the kid was the only solution to de-escalating the situation.
Here's the thing, most officers are professional and would just assume never draw their guns. I've had the honor of working with police in two different municipalities, and they're top notch people who truly believe it's their duty to serve and protect. I'm thankful for what they do. I know that they're highly trained and have earned respect. I believe they're the majority of what people in the profession are all about. They certainly wouldn't take down a guy three times their age after (incorrectly) assessing an expired license plate.
What sucks is that what is essentially isolated, if very well publicized, incidents become a problem for the people and departments who do right by their communities. If that weren't enough, part of that aforementioned mob insist that excessive force or even death is justified, and you've got morons selling T-shirts that say, "Breath easy, don't break the law," after the choking death in NYC of Eric Garner. That doesn't make anything better. Nobody wins. I don't know if there's a training problem, if it's the militarization of local forces with surplus military gear, or what, but again it's important to not just brush aside the context and pretend there's no problem. Clearly there is, and we're starting to see a lot of chiefs speak up and take ownership of their departments to reinforce the values of community policing and building trust.
All of these issues are difficult on their own, and combined create a hot mess. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that people want to simplify this hot mess, choose a side, and make it political. That's never going to get us anywhere. "Facebook activism" of drive-by re-posts intended only to further enrage people or satisfy their echo chamber will move us backward. You don't have to condone violence or protest, but try on a little empathy, even if it's putting yourself in Bernard Tyson's shoes. This isn't imagined context... it's real life.
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