The cowardly and inept govenor Jay Nixon
[Speaking Truth To Power]
So prosecutor Bob McCulloch’s secret sellout grand jury decided that Darren Wilson should pay no price, whatsoever, for killing 18-year-old Michael Brown last Aug 9.
American justice in America is a joke—especially, when those victimized are Black people. Will White police officers—who lose control and murder Black people ever be held accountable for their murderous actions?
Officer Darren Wilson just joined the ranks of White police officers who’ve murdered Black men—unjustly—and got away with it. Many Whites want to believe in the fiction of a “post-racial” America. But this verdict—and all the shenanigans that occurred with this grand jury over the last few months show that notion to be a twisted fantasy.
This decision has been a foregone conclusion for months now.
Did we really think those who allowed Michael Brown’s body to lay for four hours in the streets could somehow be trusted to uphold his humanity in the legal proceedings by indicting this killer cop?
African-Americans who vote for Democrats like Governor Jay Nixon and Senator Claire McCaskill should remember the betrayal of politicians like these with respect to this case. We must demand answers from those like Senator McCaskill, as to what are they doing to address the rampant racism that is evident in these kinds of police departments in Missouri? Where is the senator on those economic issues that plague Blacks in Ferguson, and, elsewhere in St. Louis?
But, the political figure we should point a finger at most here is: Governor Jay Nixon.
Why was Governor Nixon so weak and cowardly? Wasn’t it clear that he should’ve recused Mr. McCulloch—and appoint a special prosecutor? As a former prosecutor himself, was he afraid that he would be roundly attacked by those in the Missouri criminal justice establishment? Was he afraid of what White Missourians would think of him if he did so?
However you slice it, Governor Nixon’s political concerns helped to assure the injustice of this decision. Black people must remember his role in this travesty—and punish him accordingly come election time.
The governor’s wishy-washy conduct is an unforgivable dereliction of duty. We should remember Mr. McCulloch’s fixing—yes, I say fixing—of this decision would not have been possible if Governor Nixon had showed real leadership and removed him from the grand jury process.
Mr. McCulloch was clearly partial to police from the beginning—and should’ve been removed, especially after he criticized Governor Nixon for replacing the Ferguson Police, with the Missouri Highway Patrol, after the heavy-handed tactics police used that exposed them as being the brutes and agitators during the protests, immediately following the killing of Michael Brown.
Mr. McCulloch’s statements of the testimony of witnesses not matching the evidence was nothing more than a classic spin job. In so many words, he basically trashed the testimony of the multiple Black witnesses whose narratives were, essentially, the same: that Michael Brown was shot down, worse than a dog in the street, by Officer Wilson—with several shots, as he attempted to surrender.
In nearly any other case, where so many witnesses say, essentially, the same thing an indictment would be obvious. But here, McCulloch used trivial reasoning to cast aside the testimonies of Black witnesses.
At one point, he tried to claim that minor variances about where some witnesses say Brown’s hands were—when he was shot— proved that the testimony couldn’t be trusted. And, during his press conference he basically accused these Black witnesses of “making it up.”
Ironically, this smearing of these Black witnesses may have started when news media outlets, like the New York Times, totally excluded the numerous witnesses who said that Brown was shot as he attempted to surrender. The testimony of these people were treated tangentially, at best, even in media. Because of situations like this, it was easy for Mr. McCulloch to just discard the testimony of these Black people.
But Black people have no rights that many in White America feel they are bound to respect. It has always been that way. And, even in an America where the name of the president is Barack Obama that reality remains.
The lives of Black people is considered cheap in this unjust society that became the America “on a shining hill” that many White people like to brag about. A significant part of White America’s “original sin” is the exploitation and demonization that it has continually been visited upon Black people.
That’s why to many a great injustice such as what we see in Ferguson is palatable.
American violence against Black people is perpetrated by widespread segments of the society, aided by media demonization —and those in law enforcement and criminal “justice” establishment are a major part of that situation of violence that Black people face.
This decision is just another example of the fact that there is an ongoing war, in progress, against Black America. What Mr. McCulloch and his cronies did here was what many Whites have done for decades against Black people: use America’s legal institutions to legitimize injustice against Black people—like the infamous all-White juries who always blatantly refused to find White murderers of Black men guilty back in the old South. Looking at Mr. McCulloch, much of what is wrong with White America, especially, within America’s courts can be seen.
Like a sly snake, this prosecutor used his legal office to undercut anything resembling justice. Mr. McCulloch’s rambling rhetoric was his way to try and muddy the waters by introducing meaningless trivialities to confuse from the important evidence.
Even worse, the powerful largely White media asked Mr. McCulloch none of the relevant questions here. Including, why did Officer Wilson chase Michael Brown—after the altercation at the squad car—and shoot him down? And, how was his life in danger—from Michael Brown—at that point in time? Where the hell is the real justification here?
But Black people are portrayed as a criminal-class that is not fit to live. This has been taught to White people by those in the so-called “law and order” community. So why should we be surprised that we still get no justice in the so-called criminal justice system which does what it’s designed to do?
The fact is the White “justice system will never fully respect the rights of Black Americans.
Start with the apartheid structure of policing in Ferguson; where a majority Black city has only three African Americans on a police force of 52.
One lesson from Ferguson. African American communities must demand that those who police their neighborhoods live there and reflect the community’s makeup.
That’s only the beginning. Prosecutors and judges must also reflect the community that is subjected to the “judicial” system.
Insanity is maintaining the status quo and expecting different outcomes.
